Only Peace Wins January, 18, 2015 Sermon #666

Only Peace Wins

Introduction: Some time back the Gallup organization polled Americans about their most important criteria for judging personal success. They apparently gave them a list of 20 or 30 different options, and these were the results:

 Good health came in first - 58%

 Second, an enjoyable job - 49%

 A happy family was third - 45%

 A good education, fourth - 39%.

 Peace of mind, fifth - 34%

 Good friends, sixth - 25%

 Materialistic factors as unlimited money, a luxury car, and an expensive home brought up

the rear.

ILL: I found it interesting that one of the top five qualities of a “successful life” was peace of mind. And peace of mind was something God has promised to us. When Jesus was born the angels declared “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Luke 2:14 Jesus said “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you....” John 14:27.

In fact, Isaiah prophesied that when Jesus came, He would be called “The Prince of Peace, and of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end...” Isaiah 9:6-7

And then, in Galatians 5 we’re told that part of the fruit of the spirit is peace. So, not only do most men and women highly prize peace, so does God. Many people believe they will experience peace of mind when they get revenge. Many will experience peace only when their political party is in power. Many will experience peace only when things go the way THEY want them to go. Everybody wants peace – they just want that peace to be on THEIR terms. And that is why there is so much conflict in this world

James 4:1-4(NKJV) – 1Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from

your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

But God’s peace is different than the kind of peace the world pursues. Jesus said...

John 14:27 – “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives...”

God wants to give us a peace that we can have no matter what happens to us in our lives. That’s because God’s kind of peace is dependent upon His spirit being in us... not upon the momentary difficulties that we encounter in this world.

As one man once put it “Peace is not the absence of trouble. Peace is the presence of God.”

ILL: The black community began a bus boycott; they carpooled and walked. To lead this boycott, they chose as a compromise candidate the new minister in town – 26 year-old, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As soon as King’s leadership of boycott was announced, the threats from the KKK and from the police began against him. Within days King was arrested for driving 30 mph in a 25 mph zone and thrown in the Montgomery jail. The following night King, shaken by his first jail experience, sat up in his kitchen wondering if he could take it anymore. Should he resign?

It was around midnight. He felt agitated and full of fear. A few minutes before, the

phone had rung. “N (expletive)..., we are tired of you and your mess now. And if you aren’t out of this town in three days, we’re going to blow your brains out, and blow up your house.” King sat staring at an untouched cup of coffee and tried to think of a way out. In the next room lay his wife already asleep, along with their newborn daughter. Here is how King remembers it:

“I sat at that table thinking about that little girl and thinking about the fact that she could be taken away from me any minute. And I started thinking about a dedicated, devoted and loyal wife, who was over there asleep. ... And I got to the point that I couldn’t take it anymore. I was weak. ... And I discovered then that religion had to become real to me, and I had to know God for myself. And I bowed down over that cup of coffee. I never will forget it. ... I prayed a prayer, and I prayed out loud that night. I said, “Lord, I’m down here trying to do what’s right. I think I’m right. I think the cause that we represent is right. But Lord, I must confess that I’m weak now. I’m faltering. I’m losing my courage.” ...And it seemed at that moment that I could hear a voice saying to me, “Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And lo I will be with you, even until the end of the world.” ...I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No never alone. No never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone.”

Three nights later a bomb exploded on the front porch of King’s home, filling the house with smoke and broken glass but injuring no one. King took it calmly. Later he said, “my experience a few nights before had given me the strength to face it.” King came back to this “visitation” at the kitchen table every critical moment in his life. For him, it became the bedrock of his faith.

I. How We Can Have Peace

Philippians 4:5-9(NKJV) – 5Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. 6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 8Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 9The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. 9The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

A. Get personal peace with fellow Christians

Philippians 4:1-3(NKJV) – 1Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved. 2I implore Euodia and I implore Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. 3And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.

ILL: Paul interrupts an epistle to implore Euodia and Synthche - the two women were upset with each other and were destroying the peace of the church! Paul says “cut it out!” He’s telling them that the way to resolve their conflict is “to agree with each other... (How?) in the Lord.” This brings us to the first KEY of having God’s peace in our lives – to do everything we do “in the Lord.”

Remember what I said earlier about what causes conflicts in people’s lives? They want peace but they want it on their terms. That’s why these ladies were in conflict; they wanted what they wanted on their terms.

Now, what Paul is telling these ladies that they’ve got to change their perspective. He’s telling them that because they were Christians none of their conflicts were “about them” anymore. They belonged to Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:18-20(NKJV) – 18Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

B. The problem is they want to win

ILL: The difference between Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and the black activist who burn and loot and shoot cops is they want to win! They want conflicts resolved in their favor. And, if you were a pagan, or a Muslim you could do things that way. But if you belong to Jesus, you can’t do things that way. If you belong to Jesus, you have to start asking yourselves the question: ‘What does God want? Not, what do I want?”

II. A Key to Peace Is to Include Jesus in Everything You Do

ILL: Too often we view praying to God the same way a mountaineer once did. He fell off a cliff. As he tumbled down into the huge canyon, he grabbed hold of a branch of a small tree. “Help!” he shouted. “Is there anyone up there?” A deep, majestic voice from the sky echoed through the canyon. “I will help you, my son. But first you must have faith and trust me.” “All right, all right, I trust you,” answered the man. The voice replied, “Then, let go of the branch.” There was a long pause and the man shouted again, “Is there anyone else up there?”

The problem is, when we approach God in that fashion, we’ll have neither peace nor answered prayer.

James 1:2-8(NKJV) – 2My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

III. We Must Remember All That God Had Done Before

Philippians 4:8-9(NKJV) – 8Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 9The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

ILL: There’s a favorite hymn that many of us grew up hearing in church, “When peace like a river attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea-billows roll, Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to know; ‘It is well, it is well with my soul.’ It is well... with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul.”

The writer of that hymn was a Chicago lawyer named Horatio Spafford. In 1871, Chicago was devastated by a great fire that destroyed much of the city, including many of Spafford’s own possessions. At about that same time, his son died. But in spite of his own personal loss, he unselfishly helped others who had become grief-stricken and homeless because of the fire. Sometime later, he and his wife and four daughters planned a trip to England where they were going to take part in a revival with Evangelist D. L. Moody. As their ship was about to depart, Spafford was unexpectedly detained by urgent business and so he sent his family ahead with intentions to join them later. As the ship neared England, it collided with an English sailing ship and swiftly sank, drowning 226 of the 273 passengers on board. His wife was one of the 47 who survived. She sent a telegram with these two words “Saved alone.” Their four daughters had drowned in the tragedy. Spafford left immediately for England and as his ship approached the area where his girls had drowned, he penned the words to this song...

Conclusion:

“Tho’ Satan Should buffet, tho’ trials should come, Let his blessed assurance control, That Christ has regarded my helpless estate, and hath shed His own blood for my soul. It is well, with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul.”