“Hurdles And The Peace Of God…”
Part 1
Scriptures: John 14:1-3; 27; Gen. 3:8-9; Mark 4:35-40; Isa. 26:3
Introduction
How many of you have had a long week? How many of you have had a long 2015? This morning I want to briefly share with you from a topic of “Hurdles And The Peace Of God.” This will be part one of two. Before I say anything else, I want to give you the definition of two words, Perfect and Constant. Perfect is defined as “complete in all respect, flawless.” Constant is defined as “not changing, continual, persistent.” Please keep these two definitions in mind as they will really be important towards the end of this message. Do you know that no matter how long your week, month or year has been you can find the peace that God has promised you?
When Jesus was preparing to leave His disciples, He told them the following as recorded in John 14:1-3, 27 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also……Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid.” Jesus was leaving His disciples but He wanted to provide them with a sense of peace. They did not understand it at the time and it would be days before the peace arrived, but He was preparing them to receive it. He wanted them to know that the days ahead would be dark, but peace would come to them from Him. This peace would be provided from within, not without. In other words, they would experience troubles but they could still be peaceful within. The world provides peace by removing the things that are troubling us – Jesus provides peace in spite of what may be troubling us.
After God created the heavens and the earth, He made a garden and placed man in the midst of it. Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden in total peace. Even the animals were at peace with one another in the garden. They did not have to worry about food, a job, the weather, anything. There was total peace and everything was operating according to the will of God. They were literally in paradise on earth. They did not have any of the worries of this world. As long as they walked with God, they had and lived in total peace. But it was disrupted. When you read the story you find that once sin entered into the world, the peace was gone. Sin corrupted the hearts and minds of mankind and the sense of complete peace was lost. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden they experienced for the first time stress and concern. We know this because in in Genesis 3:8-9 records the following; “They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ He said, ‘I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” Adam and Eve hid themselves from God, not just because they were naked, but they had an understanding of what they had done. Verse seven says that their eyes were both opened after Adam ate of the fruit. They now had an immediate understanding of sin, shame, disobedience and more important – no peace. Proverbs 28:1 says “The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, but the righteous are bold as a lion.” Adam and Eve, prior to their sin, stood boldly in the presence of the Lord. Why?, because they had not sinned and their minds were at peace. However, after they sinned, their minds were no longer at peace and they fled before the presence of the Lord. Proverbs says that the wicked flees even when no one is chasing. This is very true. When someone is doing or has done wrong, they are constantly looking over their shoulders. They are constantly on edge. This is a prime definition of what it means to not have peace! If you are doing wrong or have done wrong until you get it right with the Lord, you will not experience His peace. He will give you the strength, if you allow, to get it right with the other person if necessary. Adam and Eve fled from God because they had sinned – they had lost their sense of peace and security. They experienced fear for the first time. All of these led them to hide themselves from God. If you’re running and no one is chasing you, it’s time to get it right so that you can really enjoy the peace of God!
God’s peace is one of the benefits that we have as His children. It’s ours – regardless of the circumstances that we may find ourselves encountering. When Jesus told the disciples in John 14:27 that He was leaving them with peace, it was not a guarantee that they would not have some difficult days, it was a promise that they could have peace during those times if they kept their minds on Him. The disciples understood as they were not unaccustomed to trouble. Since the day they entered the world, they had experience troubles and it got worse after they connected with Jesus. What was different is how they thought about their troubles. Consider what Job said.
I. Days of Troubles
Job 14:1 says, “Man, who is born of woman, is short-lived and full of turmoil.” We have to understand despite what we hear from some faith ministers, we will have troubles. Troubles were here when we got here and will be here when we leave. When we come out of one trial, we have a few days before another one arrives. Someone not having Christ strongly represented in their lives get to the point of thinking “This will never end! When it rains it pours! How long Lord, how long?” While I am not saying that these statements represent a person who does not have Christ in their lives, it does signify that the person’s peace has been disturbed.
Let me use this example. If you have ever ran track or watched others run, there is one event that requires the runner to jump over hurdles. The person running the hurdles must coordinate their steps and speed to ensure that they clear each hurdle without touching them while also running faster than their competitor. I do not know the distance between each hurdle, but it seems to me that they take maybe ten steps before they are jumping again. If you see this in your mind, picture our trials and troubles as those hurdles. The person running hurdles understand before they walk on the track that they have some hurdles they must jump over. They have trained to run fast and jump hurdles along the way. When they line up they are not worried about “if” they will clear the hurdles, they are focusing on how fast they can do it so as to beat their competitors. They have confidence that even though there are hurdles in their way, they will clear them all as that is their job. As they are running, if they hit one or trip and fall, they get back up and finish the race. They do not stop. The hurdles are there with the purpose of them jumping over them. The person has trained and is ready to tackle the hurdles. They expect the hurdles and believe in their hearts that they are more than capable of dealing with them. For those running the hurdles in track, all of the hurdles are the same height for the men and for the women.
However, the runners are not the same height. Some could be tall while others could be short. The runner, who is shorter than their competitors, must jump higher to clear a hurdle versus a runner who is taller. Picture this in your mind. They must clear the same hurdle as their competitor who is taller and can more easily jump over the hurdle. This means they must train harder to ensure that they are able to jump higher and run faster. It’s the same way with us spiritually. A baby Christian trying to jump a hurdle in life will have a harder time doing it than someone who has been truly walking with Christ for years. As they continue to grow (train) their ability to jump the hurdles with confidence will grow. As they begin to turn their troubles over to God and watch Him handle them it eventually becomes a way of life for them.
Now consider what would happen if the coach had to do a last minute substitute and the only person available was the person who was a long distance runner. They have seen the hurdles but never tried to jump one. When they line up for the race do you think this person has the same level of confidence as the person who had been trained for the race? Absolutely not! Do you think this replacement would have a sense of peace about their abilities versus the person who had been jumping hurdles for years? Absolutely not! The point I am making here is that when we are connected with Christ and allow Him to begin to rule within our hearts we can grow in confidence in how our situations are handled. We can know, based on how God has brought us through before that our current hurdles will be handled. Because we have witnessed Him in action and have felt the peace within us, we grow in confidence in each new hurdle that we clear. Job was right when he said that man’s days are full of trouble, but he did not know Jesus like we do nor did he have the Spirit of God living within him. So we can know that even though our lives might be full of trouble, we can achieve a sense of peace.
II. Peace Be Still
When I sung in the Columbia, TN Mass Choir many years ago, we sang a song “Peace Be Still.” This song was based on the story found in Mark 4:35-40. In this story Jesus and His disciples were in a boat on the Sea of Galilee when a fierce storm arose. Jesus was asleep on the boat when the storm. The disciples were fishermen and were accustomed to storms on the seas, but this one scared them. They ran to Jesus and woke Him up. He rebuked the winds and the waves by saying, “Peace, Be Still!” and the winds and waves obeyed Him. Then He turned to His disciples and asked them why they were afraid and if they still had no faith. Consider what Jesus was saying to His disciples. They were in the midst of a storm and they feared for their lives and He asked them why? Why were they afraid? Where was their faith? We too go through storms and we also are tossed to and fro as the disciples were, but it does not mean that we must lose our peace. It not necessarily being peaceful with what is happening around us, but having peace that it will work out and we will be okay.
My grandfather was a carpenter, brick mason, electrician, plumber and a minister. There are many structures in and around our home town that he worked on and left his signature mark on. When I was younger, he would sometimes hire my brother and me to work with him. We did whatever he needed us to do and I learned a lot about doing that type of work. Although money was often tight and there were many things being faced by blacks in the south during those days he had a sense of peace about him, especially when he was working. When he worked he would be singing or humming hymns but his favorite was whistling. He could whistle with the best of them. If you ever seen any of the old Clint Eastwood movies where the guy is whistling in the background for the music, that was the way my grandfather whistled. It did not matter where he was working he was humming, singing, or whistling the old gospel hymns. They were within him and those songs gave him a sense of peace despite his situations. Later in his life he went through some terrible times physically, mentally and spiritually. During those times I do not remember him whistling as often. His peace was gone. He had lost that center of gravity that I witnessed as we were growing up. My last meaningful conversation with him happened a couple of days before he died. It was just the two of us. I reminded him of what Christ had done for him. He told me how powerful Satan could be and I kept focusing him back on Jesus. I asked him if he remembered the price that Christ had paid for him. He finally smiled and said that he remembered. With tears in his eyes he said that he loved Him and knew that he belonged to him – that his sins were forgiven. There was a deep sense of peace that came upon him and I felt like a burden had been lifted. Two days later he was gone.
I went to visit him on that day because I believe that is what God had for me. Normally there was always someone there whenever I went but on this occasion he was alone. God opened the door to ensure that my grandfather who had strayed found his way back to him. This visit allowed me to celebrate his life at his funeral versus experiencing the unrest of not knowing if he had gotten some things straight with God. I had a sense of peace leaving that room that he was ok and that he would spend an eternity with Christ. My grandfather had faced many hurdles in his lifetime and many times he cleared them and sometimes he ran right into them. Sometimes he stumbled and sometimes he fell. But he kept running. I am blessed to be able to say that I believe that he jumped and cleared that last hurdle. He finished his race right on time.
I can’t finish this message this morning, but before I close I want to remind you of something that was written in Isaiah 26:3. It reads “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in You.” (NAS) Let me read this verse from the Amplified Bible. In the Amplified it reads “You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind (both its inclination and its character) is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You.”
If you do not have a sense of peace in your situation this morning, memorize this verse. Memorize the Amplified version! You see, we have a promise here that God will keep us in perfect and constant peace. If you look up the words perfect and constant you will find these definitions: Perfect is defined as “complete in all respect, flawless.” Constant is defined as “not changing, continual, persistent.” The peace that has been promised to us is one that is complete in all respect; not changing, but continual and persistent. Think about it like this: if we keep our minds stayed on Jesus, the peace of God is running in the background like the antivirus software on your computer. The antivirus software is always running and searching for viruses and malware, but you don’t think about it being there until a problem comes up. When a virus attacks your computer, the software goes to work, sometimes fixing the problem before you ever realized a problem was there. This is the peace of God. It is always running within our lives but it comes to the forefront when we are dealing with troubling situations. Sometimes its automatic based on where our minds are with Jesus and sometimes we have to call it up and activate it like when we run a virus scan on our computers manually. Regardless the peace is available to us 24/7.
So if your sense of peace is missing this morning, is your mind stayed on Jesus? Have you committed yourself and your situation to Him? Are you leaning on Him or your own understanding and knowledge? Have you placed your hope with confidence within Him? If you answered no to any of those questions then you are not activating a promise that has been given to us. When you get your new credit/debit card in the mail, there is a sticker on the front where you have to call an 800 number to activate the call so you can use it. Well the peace of God that has been given to you but you need to activate it. To activate it you must get your mind focused on Jesus. Stop looking down and around and look up! You can’t jump the hurdles if you’re not looking up!
If you’re on the track facing hurdles this morning have peace. Run and jump and see how Jesus will do the rest. Don’t stop, just run and jump!!!
I will complete this message next week.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
