Peace With God
June 10, 2001
Story of retired couple in early 80s alarmed by threat of nuclear war
- Seriously studied all the inhabited places of the world to determine which would be least affected by a nuclear war… a place of ultimate peace & security.
- They not only studied, but traveled from place to place till the found the perfect place.
- Around Christmas time, they wrote their former pastor from their new home… in the Falkland Islands.
- The problem is, within a few months, the Falkland war (’82) broke out b/t Great Britain and Argentina. Their hopes for peace were crushed!
Not as dramatically as this couple, we all tend to spend our lives searching for peace.
- It’s why so many people work so hard to buy their “dream” house.
- Once you’re in the dream house you need the 52” TV to really have peace
- So much of what we pursue has in it an aspect of looking for peace.
- Rob Eyeman: Attracted to Jesus through the great peace I saw in Rob.
- Fact is, God created us with this need… and so we all live our lives with this inherent drive for peace inside us.
We said last week that as we remove those natural “props”, those man-made devises which we use to keep ourselves from drowning in the midst of life’s challenges, trusting instead in our loving Father, approaching Him with prayer, supplication, with thanksgiving, then the PEACE OF GOD, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Then he says, “Finally brethren”, which indicates that he’s building on to what he has just shared, “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, let your mind dwell on these things. (9) The things you have learned & received and heard & seen in me, practice these things; and the God of peace shall be with you.”
Paul starts this passage in verse 7 speaking of the “peace of God” and finishes in vs 9 speaking of the “God of peace”.
- For a people longing for peace, this is an awesome promise. God of peace be with you.
- What is it that Paul is asking us to do? Only 2 verbs… “Think” & “Do”
o If you want the God of peace with you, think about these things, and then practice these things.”
o The word “to think” is a Greek word from which we get our word, logic. Paul is not encouraging passive thought but rather is saying that we must aggressively monitor our thought lives.
o WHY?
Because the major battleground in our lives as believers is in our MIND.
- 2 Cor 10:3-5 “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
- Again, Paul is saying that we aggressively take every thought captive to make sure these thoughts are in line with God’s heart.
Not easy, is it. Not for me! It takes lots of mental energy.
- When is it that you feel you have less control over your thoughts? At night… when we’re both physically and mentally tired.
- We stop running the garbage of the world through the filters that God has given to us.
- Fact is, the average person has >200 negative thoughts a day: worries, jealousies, insecurities, cravings for forbidden things, etc.
- the average person struggling with even mild depression will have as many as 600.
- All these thoughts/images making their way into our minds is having a significant impact on us and our walk with God.
Satan knows that if he can preoccupy our minds with worry, anxiety, negative thoughts and images, lust, and envy, then we will for certain be sidelined in the Christian race.
- All these thoughts/emotions block out the peace God wants us to live in.
- We need to recognize that patterns of thought don’t just arise by themselves. In a way, we program our own minds… we essentially set ourselves up for peace or discord by what we allow to come into our eyes and ears.
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT! Heard a doctor mention this on the radio.
- what you allow into yourself becomes a part of who you are.
- This is true whether you’re talking about food the things you see, hear, read.
- Paul understand that our thoughts can, like worry and anxiety which we discussed last week, will rob us of our peace. They shape the way we think… of ourselves, others, and everything around us.
- So, Paul instructs us to filter the things that we allow in our minds.
- “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, let your mind dwell on these things.
This is difficult: You wonder… “what does this mean for me?”
- Can you listen to the music of the culture w/o having it rob me of peace?
- Can we watch TV or movies without allowing them to mold us into the culture’s value system?
- Hard to see it in the English… 1st part Jewish moral terms, 2nd part Hellenistic social terms. Implication by commentators is that Paul is not saying to rid ourselves of every cultural influence but simply calling us to run things through our spiritual filters before simply taking them into our minds.
- Find a healthy balance b/t the spiritual meat, those things which will really nourish your walk with God, and spiritual junk food… those things, which might be ok… but need to be kept in check. TV fast.
o Have a Twinkie… but don’t you dare eat the entire box!
We know the expression, “be careful who your friends are b/c you’ll likely b/c like them.
o We b/c like the culture around us.
o We start picking up buzz words of those we hang out with
o At times you can tell who your spouse is speaking with b/c of the way their talking to them.
o We are influenced by our friends… if we hang w/ negative people, we’ll likely b/c more negative.
o I Cor 15:33, “bad company corrupts good character”.
- obviously, the same is true with our thoughts… we will often become what we allow ourselves to believe.
o I’m an idiot, good for nothing…
Paul says that we’ve got to run these thoughts through a biblical grid… what is TRUE.
- Lies, which we repeat to ourselves, are typically those, which diminish our value. Our minds are filled with lies and half truths.
- 2 Cor. 11:3 says that Satan is at work to corrupt our minds with his lies.
- We see our value as being determined by what we produce, how we look, what we do, how much we make.
- You get on the bathroom scale in the morning and what do you say? “My day is ruined”, “I’m have no value”. These thoughts have to be run through the grid Paul is giving us. Is this true? No!
These lies produce negative results.
- If we think we are doing well in one of these areas, it can produce pride.
- If we aren’t measuring up, it can create in us a terrible self-image.
- Either way, the lies always focus our attention on ourselves, rather than the Father.
- We can’t do anything, which can bring us even close to the by-product of being loved unconditionally and voluntarily in Christ.
- God sent His Son into the world as a demonstration of just how much He values us.
- How much does God love you? Card: “This Much” with Jesus’ outstretched arms.
Solomon tried to find value in what he did
- smartest, richest, best looking, most powerful… but still wasn’t satisfied.
- If we could only live his life, then we’d have some peace
- But did he? He summed his life in Ecclesiastes… “meaningless, everything is meaningless.”
So many people influencing our culture believe this to be true:
- Kurt Cobane kills himself in ’94. Read section. He had it all?
- Kerry Livgren: Dust in the Wind. Read lyrics
- If we try to find our peace through what we do, how we look… we will come to the same conclusion Solomon did.
If I were to ask the average person: “guy looking for work, short, quiet, overweight, lost his hair, struggled to earn “C’s” back in college”
- Is there any real hope for this person to experience real happiness?
- Many would say no!
- What a terrible lie to believe.
- All the world’s lies about what gives us value as human beings need to be run through the filter of what is TRUE!
Truths from God’s Word:You are completely forgiven by GodYou are righteous and pleasing to GodYou are totally accepted by GodYou are deeply loved by GodYou are absolutely complete in ChristThe Holy Spirit dwells in youYou are God’s childYou are a joint heir with ChristGod works all things for good for those who love Him. Promises from God’s WordChrist will never leave usHe will abundantly provide for our needsWe will be in Heaven with HimWe will reign with HimHe will strengthen usHe will give us His peaceHe will accomplish His purposes
We need to dwell on these things, which are true. As well as those things which “honorable & right”, “Pure”, “good repute” (those things worth talking about), and LOVELY.
- Whatever is lovely: Such as TV Talk Shows and so many of the movies out there right now.
- By seeing them, are we being exposed to the lovely side of life?
- What Paul is saying is that if you fill yourself with what is ugly, we will not have peace.
- And the problem is that the more of the ugliness we see, the more callous we get toward what is beautiful. The more images of violence you have in your mind, the harder it will be on a daily basis to connect to the loveliness of God.
That isn’t to say that we should build walls around us and live in giant compounds to protect ourselves from the world. Just the opposite.
- We are called as individuals and as a church into the very ugliest places of the world… to bring the Gospel of peace and the light of His love to this dark place.
- But, we are responsible for monitoring what fills our minds and what occupies our thoughts. This is such an important part of parenting… guarding what enters the minds of our kids… b/c we know that if their minds and thoughts are filled with ugliness, the peace of God wont be with them.
- So, when our kids want to watch a cartoon, full of ugliness, we need to make a value decision. You see, we often give in to our kids b/c we don’t want them to be different from other kids. Once we say that, we have bought the world’s lie in exchange for the Truth of God’s word.
Why should we tell the truth about who we are? Why should we dwell on things, which are noble, right, pure, and lovely?
- So that the God of peace will fill us with His peace. He wants us to experience His peace… His Shalom.
- “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” Jn 14:17
- He created to walk in intimacy with Him… in peace and in joy.
- God wants our friendship… He doesn’t just want us to get into heaven.
Gen. 3:8-9 Adam & Eve hid… and God called out, “where are you?”
- Reminds me of playing “hide-n-go-seek” with Rebecca.
- It was if God was coming for His afternoon walk with His kids
- Living God says, “where are you?” as they continue to hide.
- Our lives are about friendship with God.
- Yet, as the Bible says, “two can not walk together unless they are agreed”. God dwells in truth, beauty, loveliness, and purity.
- We need to fill our minds with these things b/c God wants friendship with us… and He wants us to know His peace.
- As a church, we will not be motivated by legalism but a hunger for intimacy.
When the Jimmy Swaggart scandal broke out, Floyd McClung shared how he poured his heart out to the Father in frustration.
- Lord how he has made our job harder… embarrassing the church.
- What a waste… that ministry was reaching so many people
- Their budget was 140 million dollar/year… now lost.
- What God spoke back to him was this… Floyd, Jimmy is more important to me than any 140 million budget… I will do whatever it takes to get a heart friendship with him.
WORSHIP TEAM
God wants to walk with you in the Garden… and He is calling out to you saying, “where are you?”
- if there is anyone here (of course there are) who are focusing in on what is untrue, telling and believing lies about yourselves, which are keeping you from the kind of intimate friendship God created us for, then it is time to return to what is true.
- To live is to walk in the garden of His delight… to know His peace and to experience His intimacy.
- Paul has told us how to walk in this reality, now it is up to us to respond.
