Peace Like A River

Market Street ( A memory Care Facility)Sermon on Peace 1/5/2020

By joe bedy

In our last services we have been talking about the fruit of the Spirit form Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

I also spoke about the fact that a Christian does not need to go to any particular place to assemble together to worship God. I told you we are the church that meets at Market Street.

I have spoken about the first 2 fruits Love and Joy and the 3rd fruit mentioned is peace and so guess what I am speaking about today?

If you are still trying to find peace in your life by controlling your circumstances, your marriage, the church, people or things, then you are trying to find peace in the way the world finds peace.

OK you say I understand that, but tell me how can I find the peace that Jesus gives?

Jesus is our example in every aspect of our lives is He not?

Listen to what He says; listen to how He tells His disciples to have peace as He prepares to leave this earth.

In John 16 He tells them to pray, to ask for what they want in His name, which is really saying not my way, not my kingdom, not my will, but your will Father, just as Jesus did.

Phil 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!

Story: behind the lyrics of the song: IT is well with my Soul by Horatio Spafford

Horatio G. Spafford was a successful lawyer and businessman in Chicago with a lovely family - a wife, Anna, and five children. However, they were not strangers to tears and tragedy. Their young son died with pneumonia in 1871, and in that same year, much of their business was lost in the great Chicago fire. Yet, God in His mercy and kindness allowed the business to flourish once more.

On Nov. 21, 1873, the French ocean liner, Ville du Havre was crossing the Atlantic from the U.S. to Europe with 313 passengers on board. Among the passengers were Mrs. Spafford and their four daughters. Although Mr. Spafford had planned to go with his family, he found it necessary to stay in Chicago to help solve an unexpected business problem. He told his wife he would join her and their children in Europe a few days later. His plan was to take another ship.

About four days into the crossing of the Atlantic, the ship they were on collided with a powerful, iron-hulled Scottish ship, the Loch Earn. Suddenly, all of those on board were in grave danger. Anna hurriedly brought her four children to the deck. She knelt there with Annie, Margaret Lee, Bessie and Tanetta and prayed that God would spare them if that could be His will, or to make them willing to endure whatever awaited them. Within approximately 12 minutes, their ship slipped beneath the dark waters of the Atlantic, carrying with it 226 of the passengers including the four Spafford children.

A sailor, rowing a small boat over the spot where the ship went down, spotted a woman floating on a piece of the wreckage. It was Anna, still alive. He pulled her into the boat and they were picked up by another large vessel which, nine days later, landed them in Cardiff, Wales. From there she wired her husband a message which began, “Saved alone, what shall I do?” Mr. Spafford later framed the telegram and placed it in his office.

Another of the ship’s survivors, Pastor Weiss, later recalled Anna saying, “God gave me four daughters. Now they have been taken from me. Someday I will understand why.”

Mr. Spafford booked passage on the next available ship and left to join his grieving wife. With the ship about four days out, the captain called Spafford to his cabin and told him they were over the place where his children went down.

According to Bertha Spafford Vester, a daughter born after the tragedy, Spafford wrote “It Is Well With My Soul” while on this journey.

When peace like a river attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll,

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well with my soul.

Chorus:

It is well with my soul,

It is well, it is well with my soul

Anna gave birth to three more children, one of which died at age four with dreaded pneumonia. In August 1881, the Spaffords moved to Jerusalem. Mr. Spafford died and is buried in that city.

How do we find peace when we lose 2 sons to pneumonia and 4 daughters in a ship wreck?