God's Peace

This morning I conclude a sermon series that started out as only one sermon. Our topic has been grasping God’s peace in the midst of our Life’s storms. Each sermon that God has given to me has seemed to speak directly to me. - Testing me to see if my words met my own actions and responses.

And after this past week I am sorry to say I didn’t do so well on the test. As many of you know this past week was a week of vacation where a part of the week would be spent in Spartanburg at an evangelism conference and the other part in Asheville letting Faith see snow.

In my own ideal world I had looked forward to this moment since India. Taking my family on a vacation spending quality family time- all happily together.

There in close quarters Caleb decided to spike a fever, scream uncontrollably, not sleep at night, refuse to drink milk or any juices, you name it he did it. It got so bad that on Tuesday Night we thought about just going home and foregoing Asheville, but two things kept us from going first we had already prepaid the hotel in Asheville and second we had promised Faith snow.

So we limped to Asheville. But after a smaller hotel room, a much louder inconsolable Caleb, I personally lost it. In the midst of the storm my eyes went straight to the waves around me and not to the face of Jesus. In fact anger flooded over me like a Tsunami as we retreated back home a day earlier than we had planned. The ride backed reeked of every negative emotion I could muster from anger to frustration to despair.

So as I prepare and later deliver this message. I feel a bit like Peter who after walking on the water had to be rescued from drowning by Jesus. All because he took his eyes off Jesus.

There are many things, many life events that cause us to focus on our life circumstances instead of on Christ, and when our eyes do this, we are robbed of our peace and joy.

In the word of God we are promised Peace, but it is a conditional promise. A promise that will only come about if certain conditions are met, if we do or don’t do certain things.

Listen to our promise of peace… It is found in the book of Philippians chapter 4 verse 7...

If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Sound good… It is this kind of peace that our world is looking for… A peace that draws people to Christ… To the answer…

Sadly though it is a peace that very few Christians daily walk in… A peace that is offered but rarely accepted rarely received.

A peace that is supernaturally directed that rises above all our life circumstances and storms.

An obvious question to ask at this point would be Why?

Why Not? Well before we pose a possible response to the Why? Let’s take a look at the conditions that must be met to receive this peace.

We find this is the verse before the one we last read. Verse 6 of the book of Philippians.

Don’t worry about anything instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

Three commands or conditions are listed in this passage.

First we are commanded to Not Worry

To not focus upon our life situations, To not linger with them, replaying situation after possible situation only to find us powerless to do anything about them.

As I reflected upon this command, I thought about situations where we would not worry. I thought of a child parent, teacher student, boss worker or mentor mentored scenarios. Where we trust the other person placing our cares and our concerns in their hands.

I saw happen in a small way when we all went to New York. We all loaded up in a 54 seat Bus where we were driven to Brooklyn. Most of us enjoyed the ride. Trusting the driver to make all the right and safe decisions. And as we worked in a rather unique and diverse Brooklyn culture, many trusted that the leaders of this trip or their pastor would keep them safe. Even when a homeless man decided to barrage us with insults and swear words.

You get the picture not fretting or worrying is possible when we trust in someone else to protect and provide for us.

Although our bus driver, trip leaders, and even your pastor try their pastor to keep you safe, how much more is our God. Almighty, all knowing, all powerful, always present, creator God. He is able to keep us safe. He is able to handle any life storm that you will ever go through. He can handle it all.