Peace Series

Two Ladies on a Train

• Years ago a man found himself on a train between two ladies.

• And Unfortunately for him the two ladies were arguing constantly about whether the window should be open or shut.

• The lady farthest from the window argued that she would die of heat stroke if it wasn’t opened.

• The other said she would certainly catch pneumonia if it didn’t stay closed.

• When the ticket taker arrived the ladies begged to him to come up with a solution.

• But unfortunately he didn’t have a solution.

• Finally the man spoke up. "First open the window. That will kill the one.

• Then close it. That will kill the other. Then we will have peace."

Today is the second week of Advent and The subject for today is peace!

If someone were to come and ask you, “WHAT IS PEACE”,

• How would you answer them?

• Is it one of the spiritual gifts?

• Peace is one of those things that everyone wants,

• But no one really knows how to get

• And if they do manage to get it they don’t know how to keep it.

Peace is not merely the absence of activity.

• Many people have a concept of peace similar to the man in this story.

• For them peace is the absence of conflict.

• However this falls short of the biblical vision

• We often use the phrase “peace and quiet” as our need to slow down.

• But Peace is more than living without anger.

• In Scripture peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of love, generosity and grace as the transforming principle of our relationships.

• Peace is a frame of mind that we have when we are right with God.

Peace is regarded as one of the supreme virtues

• And yet I often think it’s missing in our lives.

• We think we have to get rid of all the problems in our lives.

• And If we do, then and only then, we’ll can have peace.

• If we can get rid of the stress,

• If we can just get a new job,

• If we can just pay off our credit cards,

• And get on top of things.

• We have to understand that if this is what is needed to achieve peace

• We will never gonna get it.

A few things I learned over the years:

• Life is not about how fast you run, or how high you climb, but how well you bounce.

• In Life you need to forgive your enemies. Because It messes with their heads.

• In Life, every path has some puddles.

• In Life, don’t corner something meaner than you.

• And In Life words that sink into your soul are whispered, not yelled.

What I want us to see today

• Is that peace comes not by getting rid of our problems

• But by focusing on what God wants us to think about.

If we have a personal relationship with God,

• Then we have access to all of His power and / all of His peace.

• The question then becomes how do we tap into that power

• So that we can experience that peace.

We tap into the power of God Through His Word

"For the word of God is full of living power." (Hebrews 4:12, NLT)

• The Word of God is our greatest source of power and our greatest source of strength.

• If we want to experience God’s power, we must live in and saturate our lives with His Word.

• We become so wrapped up in life that we fail to be wrapped up in him.

• God’s power flows from a life that’s saturated with his Word. / Filled / Consumed

2. We tap into the power of God Through Prayer –

Jas 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

• Prayer is the combination that unlocks the door to the riches of the kingdom of God.

• Our lack of knowledge about prayer

• And our failure to pray

• Are the things that block us from having a full and fruitful relationship with God.

3. We tap into the power of God Through other Believers –

Ecc 4:12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

• It is thru unity with one another that we find peace.

• When we bind together with our fellow Christians it makes us stronger.

• And When we’re stronger we can stand up to the world when its problems hit us in the face.