“Hurdles And The Peace Of God”
Part 2
Scriptures: Isa. 26:3; Philippians 4:4-9; Psalm 37:4
Introduction:
This is part two of my message “Hurdles and the Peace of God.” Last week I used the example of someone running hurdles during a track meet. I used this example because a person must train specifically to run the hurdles. The hurdles are the same height for the men and the women and with that understanding we know that a short person must apply more of themselves to jump each hurdle versus their taller competitor. Spiritually this is important because an average Christian must work a lot harder to maintain and/or accept God’s peace in their lives when they are dealing with troubles (jumping their hurdles) versus someone who is walking closely with God and remembers how God has brought them through. Believe me when I tell you that I have had many sleepless nights when all I could do was remind myself of where God has brought me from to secure in my mind that He would continue to see me through. During those sleepless night I cannot tell you that I was allowing the peace of God to operate within me in those situations. So what I am telling you in this message is something that I have lived through and will probably go through again as I continue in my own personal faith walk.
I want to start this morning where I closed on last week, Isaiah 26:3. It reads “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in You.” (NAS) The Amplified Bible 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.” I shared with you last week the definitions of the words perfect and constant. 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. This morning we will look at this perfect and constant peace in action.
I. Paul’s Imprisonment
When you read the book of Philippians, you find a letter that Paul wrote to the Church at Philippi. When this letter was written, Paul was in a Roman prison. The Church at Philippi was founded by Paul and was one of the first Churches established by him. It would seem that they held a special place in his heart as you read the letter he wrote to them. This Church had helped him financially previously and once they heard he was imprisoned in Rome, they sent Epaphroditus with another gift. What we read in Philippians is a thank you letter from Paul to them for the gift that they had sent him and is the most personal letter Paul wrote to a Church. Epaphroditus had become almost fatally ill while he was with Paul and upon his recovery Paul sent this letter back with him. We will focus on what Paul wrote in the fourth chapter, but I want to read a few versus before we get there.
When you read Paul’s writings, he always extends peace to the receivers of his letters. In verse two of chapter one, he wrote “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” He was extending peace to this Church from his prison. He tells them that he is thankful for them and that he was confident that the work that God had begun in them through Jesus Christ would be completed. Verses twelve through thirty of chapter one tells us all we know about this imprisonment. Paul knew that he was facing a great ordeal but he took great pains not to alarm his friends. His only focus, even from prison, was the advancement of the gospel. In verse thirteen he says “So that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else.” This group of guards was different from the Roman army. They were assigned the duty of guarding Paul and were chained to him. These guards would rotate every 6 hours so this gave Paul a very captive audience for spreading the gospel amongst these guards. So let me ask you a question, if you were imprisoned for speaking the words of Christ, would you attempt to save the guards who were guarding you or would you be stressing about your situation and if you would live through it? Paul’s focus was on spreading the word of Christ!
Let’s examine something else he said in verse twenty-seven of chapter one for a moment. It says, “Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” (Phil. 1:27) Focus on the word “conduct” for a moment. It was a political term meaning “live as citizens” (of heaven 3:20). To do this, believers had to stand, strive and suffer. Do you understand this? Christians were never supposed to live lives of ease because we are warriors for Christ in a world that does not want us here! If you hear someone tell you that because you are a Christian and walking in faith you should have an easy life, ask them what are they doing for Christ? You see, when you take a stand the forces of our enemy will always try to knock you off of it. If you are not standing for anything you can’t be knocked down. You can’t be knocked down if you’re already lying down. If you’re not standing up for what His word says you’re laying down for what the world says. I will leave that for another time. Paul told the church at Philippi to live as citizens of heaven – worthy citizens! When you understand that your life will be filled with troubles because of your walk with Christ, you can have His peace because this is just part of the job! Now turn with me to the fourth chapter.
II. The Peace of God
Paul wrote the following in Philippians 4:4-9: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
There is something that I want to point out from these verses. Paul says that we should rejoice – always – not just when things are going well. In verse six he says that we should not be anxious for anything – in other words do not worry. Do not stress! Do not dwell on! But in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, take it to God. When we do this, take everything to God through prayer and thanksgiving, His peace which we do not understand will guard our hearts and minds. Paul was reminding the people of what was recorded in Isaiah 26:3, but he did not stop there. In verse eight he tells them what to think about. We gloss over this verse but it is really a key verse in understanding how not to be anxious or in a state of worry.
What are we doing when we worry? We are constantly thinking about whatever the problem is. We dwell on it, play out different scenarios as to how it could possibly work out – generally going to worse-case scenario. Paul recommended that if we focus our thinking on what is true and honorable (in regards to the truth of our words and engagements with others. Also I believe the truth found in God’s word which should be a guiding light for our lives); what is right (just) and pure (agreeable to the rules of justice and righteousness in all our dealings with others); lovely and of good repute (worthy of consideration or regard) (all the things that will render us beloved and make us well-spoken and thought of by others. If we fix our minds on these things and not the problems we see before us, it will reduce our anxiety and we can walk in His peace. Anxiety increases when our minds are focused on things that could happen to us, and not good things. When our minds go to worse-case scenario, our stress and anxiety level increases. I am not saying that we should put our heads in the sand and act like the problems are not there, but see the problem through God’s eyes. See the problems being solved versus them ruining your life. Understand that God has given us His peace, but it is up to us to walk in it. Think of this as yielding to God. When you come to a four-way stop sign, you know the person on the right has the right away if you both got there at the same time. So you yield the right away to that other person. When you arrive upon your problem (your hurdle) yield the right away to God and allow Him to move first – not after you have tried to go through. Walking this way will allow us to have God’s peace present in all of our situations. Paul tells us what we need to focus on when we start sensing that God’s peace is leaving us leading to an increase in our anxiety level. These are the things we need to think about.
Remember, Paul wrote these words while he was imprisoned in Rome. Although he could not preach publicly, he could preach through the written word! As you read what he wrote it is evident that he is more concerned about the congregation wellbeing than he was about his situation. He was chained to a soldier, told when he could eat, use the rest room, take a bath and probably had problems getting a good night’s sleep because of the chains. But one thing he did have was peace! Paul’s peace came through an acceptance and understanding that he belonged to God and that he was doing exactly what God wanted him to be doing. He was serving Christ. Because he knew he was doing what he was supposed to be doing, he could rejoice and have peace. Psalm 37:4 says “Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Paul delighted himself in the Lord and therefore he could tell the Church at Philippi to Rejoice!
It is our choice and a privilege to rejoice in God. He will not force us to do it, we must choose to do it. We must choose to do it always, in every situation, and then we can truly begin to walk in the peace that He has promised us. God has enough peace and joy to sustain all of us – at the same time! He will not run out. If we choose to rejoice in Him in all our circumstances, we can have His peace. When my money is low and my bills are high, Paul says Rejoice! When you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, Paul says Rejoice! You’re having a bad day at work, Paul said Rejoice! We can rejoice because we know Who has our backs and Who has guaranteed our future! We are not alone here on this earth! Psalm 55:22 says “Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” That word “cast” in the Hebrew means to throw away, not pitch it a few feet away from you, but to throw with all your might. You want to throw it with such force that you cannot go and search for it later and find it. It’s gone! When we cast our burdens on the Lord, God will sustain us. It’s not about our strength, it’s about His!
Paul said in verse seven “And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” As I shared with your last week, peace is a tranquil state of mind – your soul is calm. It is an assurance that no matter what you are faced with, you will overcome it. When we are fully reconciled to God, His peace comes upon us. When that happens we can accept it and walk in it or we can accept it and override it by what we allow our minds to focus on. Because we are children of God, His peace is available for us. If we do not have it, it’s because we are overriding it with our will. God is not giving peace and taking it away – if we do not have it, it’s because we are overriding it. We have His peace as a guaranteed promised and God never goes back on His word nor does He ever promise something and not fulfill it. So do you have peace this morning? It was given to you. If you do not have it, what did you do with it?
Conclusion
The Church I grew up in had a lot of older members. They loved to sing the old hymns of the Church. I grew up singing these same hymns – they got me through. When I experienced times of stress as a child and teenager, I found comfort in those gospel songs. As a teenager I would spend hours and hours in my bedroom listening to my gospel music. I did not have it as good as the kids do today where they can plug their ear phones in and listen to music without moving. No I was listening to the small 45 rpm records that played one song and the double-sided albums. When one side finished, you had to flip it to the other side to continue listening to the music. Heaven forbid if you had a scratch on the record and the record got stuck. But when I listened to those old hymns, they calmed my nerves. You see, the older people used to sing songs that had words like:
“What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer. O what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer…”
We also sung these words: “What a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms; what a blessedness, what a peace is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms. What have I to dread, what have I to fear, leaning on the everlasting arms? I have blessed peace with my Lord so near, leaning on the everlasting arms.”
While I love to sing praise songs, sometimes I need to go back a ways to get those songs that used to bring peace to my spirit. Those songs were written during times when the song writer had gone through something. They were not writing because the words sounded good, they wrote out of their experience. God has given us peace. If you do not have peace this morning check yourself. See where you placed it. Understand what you are focusing on. Isaiah 26:3 promised us that if we keep our minds stayed on God we would walk in perfect peace because our minds are on Him and not our problem.
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)
