She was all smiles as she wore her crown. But when we read of her in the newspaper again, she no longer had a smile on her face because she was in some serious trouble with the law.
Her boy friend had dumped her and married another woman.
She drove 250 miles to seek revenge. She took along a pistol, a hammer, lighter fluid and matches.
When she arrived at his house and rang the doorbell, it was answered by his new father-in-law. She faked having car trouble, and asked if she could use the telephone. Once inside the house, she took out her hammer and hit the father-in-law on the head. She stunned him, but didn’t knock him out. What she didn’t realize was that he was an ex-secret service agent. He grabbed her and as they struggled, she pulled the pistol from her purse and tried to shoot him. That’s when the mother-in-law jumped in to assist in the apprehension and the two of them wrestled her to the floor, holding her until the police arrived.
When questioned, she said that she was driven to seek revenge because she needed "INNER PEACE."
Today, I want to talk to you about a fruit of the Spirit that God wants every Christian to bear, that is, THE FRUIT OF PEACE. This is the third fruit of the Spirit.
The Bible teaches that there is a peace that the lost world provides. That is, the world in which we live provides a certain kind of peace.
Illus: We can see that in the face of Bill Gates, Ted Turner, and Donald Trump. These men are not Christians, but everything is going well in their lives and they are experiencing a peace that the world provides.
It is no mystery why these men can walk around experiencing the peace that the world provides. However, it is a great mystery how some can have PEACE when things are not going well with them.
Illus: A man by the name of Horatio Gates Spafford, was a Christian attorney that lived in Chicago and went through some very difficult times in his life.
He was in the Chicago fire of 1871 where over a hundred thousand were left homeless, and over 300 died. Spafford, for two years, unselfishly helped to assist the needs of the homeless, impoverished, and those grief-stricken by the fire. Horatio G. Spafford was known throughout Chicago as a sincere, devout Christian.
After two years of such work, in November 1873, Spafford and his family decided to take a vacation. He wanted to do two things on this particular vacation:
• Join his good friend Dwight L. Moody in one of his evangelistic campaigns in England.
• From there Mr. Spafford planned on traveling on to Europe.
However, just as the Spafford’s were preparing to leave, Horatio was unexpectedly detained by urgent business concerns in Chicago.
The decision was made that his wife Anna and their daughters – Anna (Annie), Maggie, Bessie, and Tanetta would continue on as scheduled to England.
Once Spafford had resolved the business concern, he would then catch up with them on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
The ship, the S.S. Ville du Harve, which his wife and daughters were traveling on, never reached England. Off Newfoundland, the ship collided with an English sailing vessel, the Loch Earn. The ship sank rapidly, approximately within 20 minutes after it was struck.
Mrs. Spafford was one of the 47 to survive; tragically all four of their daughters were part of the 226 who perished in the aftermath.
Anna Spafford’s heartbreaking telegram to her husband simply read: “Saved alone.”
Horatio immediately set sail for England to join his grief-stricken wife. As the ship that he was traveling on passed the approximate location where his daughters had drowned, it is reported that due to his deep sorrow mingled with his unwavering faith in God’s goodness, he penned the words of his now famous hymn - “It Is Well with My Soul.”
I hope none of you ever have to face the tragedies that Mr. Spafford had to face. But we can rest assure of this, if we live long enough, some type of tragedy will find its way into our lives.
• For some it will be declining health and no doctor or drug can help them.
• For some it will be a great financial loss that will force them into bankruptcy.
• For some it will be the death of a loved one – such as a child, parent, or our spouse.
• For some it will be a devastating divorce.
But no matter what STORM in life we face, God gives us a PEACE that is not based on OUTWARD CIRCUMSTANCES.
We can have PEACE in the midst of the storms of life.
We can never reflect Christ in our life unless we can bear this fruit. Let me show you the kind of Peace the Lord provides.
I. PEACE WITH GOD
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all the nations were at PEACE with each other? But that is not the case.
Illus: If some radical Muslims could, they would love to walk into this church with a machine gun and shoot every one of us down and then walk away with a smile on their face. WE OFTEN SEE THAT KIND OF HATE THESE DAYS!
As we look at the faces of many in our own country, we see a lack of PEACE and a lot of ANGER!
Illus: A young girl who was writing a paper for school, came to her father and asked, "Dad, what is the difference between annoy, anger and exasperation?"
The father replied, "It is mostly a matter of degree. Let me show you what I mean."
With that, the father went to the telephone and dialed a number at random. To the man who answered the phone, he said, "Hello, is Melvin there?"
The man answered, "There is no one living here named Melvin. Why don't you learn to look up numbers before you dial".
"See," said the father to his daughter. "That man was not a bit happy with our call. He was annoyed. He was probably very busy with something and we annoyed him. Now watch...."
The father dialed the number again. "Hello, is Melvin there?" asked the father. The man said, "Now look here!" You just called this number and I told you that there is no Melvin here! You've got a lot of guts calling again!" The receiver slammed down hard.
The father turned to his daughter and said, "You see, that was anger. Now I'll show you what exasperation means."
He dialed the same number, and when a violent voice roared, "Hello!" The father calmly said, "Hello, this is Melvin. Have there been any calls for me?"
The man cursed him out for calling three times. He said, “See honey, he was exasperated!”
We live in a world where we SEE A LACK OF PEACE and a lot of ANNOYED, ANGRY AND EXASPERATED PEOPLE! Everyone wants PEACE, but many who seek to have PEACE have been misinformed about how to get it.
Illus: This reminds me of a young farmer who did not know anything about farming, but bought several hundred pigs, hoping to breed them for ham, bacon, etc...
After several weeks, he noticed that none of the pigs seem inclined to produce any baby pigs. So he called the local Vet.
The vet decided he would take advantage of the new farmer’s ignorance and told him that before the pigs could produce any little pigs they would have to be romantically inclined.
The young farmer said, “HOW CAN I GET THEM ROMANTICALLY INCLINED!”
The Vet said, “To get them romantically inclined, you will need to kiss each of them on the lips!”
The young farmer thought that was very unusual advice but he was serious about wanting to be a pig farmer so he decided he would do as the Vet suggested.
He was too embarrassed to kiss the pigs on the lips on the farm in fear of someone seeing him, so he loaded two hundred of them in his truck and brought them in the woods where no one could see him kiss them. He kissed every one of those pigs on the lips as the Vet said he should do.
He brought them back to the farm thinking they would be in a romantic mood and produce some little pigs. The next morning he noticed the pigs and they did not seem to very romantically inclined at all
So, he loads the pigs into his truck, drives them out into the woods again and kisses each and every one of them twice on the lips thinking this would make them romantically inclined.
But the next morning, he looked at them and they did not seem to be romantically inclined at all.
He drives them out in the woods the third time and kisses each of them three times on the lips thinking this would certainly get them in a romantically inclined.
The next morning he was so tired from all the loading, unloading, and the kissing, he was too tired to go look at them.
He told his wife to go and look at them to see if they were romantically inclined.
She came back and he said, “Are they romantically inclined?”
She said, “I couldn’t tell if they were in a romantically inclined mood or not, they are all in the truck waiting for you and one of them is in the front seat honking the horn.”
It is a terrible thing to be misinformed.
MANY HAVE BEEN MISINFORMED ABOUT HOW TO HAVE PEACE. Many think we can only have peace when we have the absence of problems. But this is not true! You can have no problems and still not have the PEACE OF GOD in your life.
God puts within our hearts a PEACE that flows like a river.
Illus: I like that chorus we sing, “I got peace like a river….I got peace like a river.”
The reason that song is such a blessing is because many of us know the PEACE of standing by a river. I am so thankful for the PEACE of God. But the peace of God is different than the PEACE OF THE WORLD.
The Lord said, in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
God’s Word let’s us know that the PEACE He gives is not the kind the world gives.
• The world’s peace comes from without. A person may not be saved, but if everything is going well in their life they have a certain kind of peace.
• God’s peace comes from within. Even though things are not going so well on the outside, we still have peace on the inside.
The lost man is at war with God every day of his life. But when the Lord saves us, we have PEACE WITH GOD. New believers will tell you how wonderful it felt after the Lord saved them and they immediately began to experience the PEACE OF GOD in their life. God wants every lost person to experience this PEACE!
This is why He says, in Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.”
It is a wonderful thing to have PEACE WITH GOD.
God gives us a PEACE WITH GOD. But also he provides us with-
II. PEACE WITH OTHERS
One of the greatest changes that we can see in a man’s life after he is saved is his attitude toward others. That is:
• I can’t look into a man’s heart and see if he has peace with God.
• I can’t look into a man’s heart and see if he has peace with himself.
• But I can look at a man’s life and see if he has PEACE WITH OTHERS.
Once we come to know the Lord, we want to live at PEACE with others.
In Romans 12:18, we read, “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.”
In other words, we should go the second mile to live at PEACE WITH OTHERS.
We can’t make everyone be at PEACE with us, but we make every effort to achieve this even if it means walking the second mile.
When we have PEACE WITH GOD and PEACE WITH OTHERS, we can have PEACE WITH OURSELVES.
All Christians at one time were the enemies of God.
Illus: Two Arabs boarded a shuttle out of Washington for New York. One sat in the window seat, the other in the middle seat.
Just before takeoff, a little Israeli guy got on and took the aisle seat next to the Arabs.
He kicked off his shoes, wiggled his toes and was settling in, when the Arab in the window seat said, "I think I'll go up and get a coke."
"No problem," said the Israeli. "I'll get it for you."
While he was gone, the Arab picked up the Israeli's shoe and spit in it.
When the Israeli returned with the coke, the other Arab said, "That looks good. I think I'll have one too."
Again, the Israeli obligingly went to fetch it, and while he is gone the other Arab picked up the other shoe and spit in it.
The Israeli returned with the coke, and they all sat back and enjoyed the short flight to New York.
As the plane was landing the Israeli slipped his feet into his shoes and knew immediately what had happened.
He stood up and said, "How long must this go on?" he asked. "This enmity between our peoples… this hatred... this animosity... this spitting in shoes and this spitting in coke bottles has got to stop some time!"
When we have God’s peace, enmity stops and we have PEACE WITH OTHERS. But also, we have-
III. PEACE WITH OURSELVES
Many are trying to have PEACE when they do not know the PRINCE OF PEACE. Many are trying to have PEACE when they are not willing to live at peace with others.
It is only when we have PEACE WITH GOD and PEACE WITH OTHERS, that we can have PEACE WITH OURSELVES.
The Holy Spirit within can provide the PEACE that you are looking for. He wants you to bear the fruit of PEACE.
Conclusion:
Some say the definition of PEACE is the ABSENCE OF CONFLICT. But that is not true. You can have no conflict in your life and still not have PEACE.
Have you made peace with God? I’m not talking about a truce. A truce is saying, “God you stay on your side of the line and I’ll stay on my side.” That’s not peace.
Peace is what will take place when you acknowledge your sins, believe that Jesus died in your place on the cross, and receive Him into your life by faith.
Are you ready to do that?
We have looked at:
I. PEACE WITH GOD
II. PEACE WITH OTHERS
III. PEACE WITH OURSELVES
