Isaiah 26:3-4 - 3 You will keep him in perfect
peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because
he trusts in You.4 Trust in the Lord
forever, For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting
strength.
The world that we live in, today, says anything but peace.
A. It is a scene of anxiety and turmoil all around us.
1. More people are on medicine to calm their
fears, than any generation before us.
B. Even in the Body of Christ, it is hard to escape the
fact that many are troubled.
1. It may be the natural thing to fear what the
world is doing.......but we have been born
again.
a. The old, natural man has been put to
death.
1.) We now place our hope and trust
in the God of heaven......not in the
so called, “reality” of this present
world.
Phil. 4:6-7 - 6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by
prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your
requests be made known to God; 7and the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts
and minds through Christ Jesus.
It’s hard to follow this admonition when the bills seem to
overwhelm us.
A. Utilities....gas, electric, water, phone.
B. Mortgage payment.
C. Car payment(s).
D. Doctor bills.
E. Car repairs.
and on the list could go..........How can we stare these
things in the face and remain calm....and have peace?
1. These things are enough to totally distract
us and capture our every conscious moment.
a. And yet......God’s Word tells us to keep
this monster under control.
II Cor. 10:5 - 5Casting down arguments and every high
thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,
bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of
Christ.
I guess the question that goes begging in many of our minds
is this: “How do we free ourselves from this overwhelming
avalanche of worries, cares, concerns, problems, etc.?”
A. The answer has to be that we must look to God for
our peace......the victory over all... that seems to be
against our peace.
1. If we look for inner peace in any other place,
we will come away empty.
Another thing that we must understand is this.....There will
always be new problems, cares, and worries to take the
place of the ones that we have just overcome.
A. PROBLEMS WILL ALWAYS BE THERE!
Matt. 6:34 - 34“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for
the day is its own trouble.
1. If we do not properly learn to deal with these
problems......they will kill us spiritually.
Matt. 13:22 - 22“Now he who received seed among the
thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world
and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he
becomes unfruitful.
a. I have often used this passage when
dealing with greed, covetousness, and
an overly competitive spirit.....and this
does address those problems.
1.) It also addresses the cares of this
world......WORRY AND FEAR.
Only God can really take care of the EVER RENEWING
cares of this life.
A. Going back to our text....The one whose mind
and trust is on God....will have perfect peace.
1. We all want this inner peace which passes
all understanding........but do we know how
to obtain it?
I. The blessing mentioned in Isaiah 26 comes from a right
heart.........a proper attitude.....some right thinking.
A. It very much agrees with the passage that I read
in II Corinthians.....we must keep our thoughts
captive.........Isaiah says, “Whose mind is stayed
on you (God).
1. Some are able to go through a whole day and
not really think about or communicate with
God.
a. Are these wicked people......no......they
are people who have focused on the
wrong plane.
1.) The earthly.....the physical....the
tangible....the here-and-now.....
has captured their attention.
** Understand that for the sake of keeping up impressions,
some here would make all the right facial expressions...
would make all the right “tsk, tsks”..........but I am
convinced that some....if not many....Christians go
through day after day of not entertaining a single
thought of God.
1. Some would say......”But this could never be...we
pray every day, don’t we?”
a. That’s the point.......the cares...the tug of the
world has tugged us away from even a
modicum of a prayer life.
2. Many who do pray.......only give God the smallest
bit of their time.........sort of “salving their
consciences”.
a. We all know what II Thess. 5:17 says....
“Pray without ceasing.”
1.) Even though we know what this verse
says.......we still only give God little
clumps of prayer, or.......worse yet......
no prayer at all.
** Why would those who follow this course of ignoring
God, the majority of the time, expect God to be with
them.......at their beck and call?
1. Remember this......God will keep, in perfect peace,
those....”WHOSE MINDS ARE STAYED ON
HIM!!!!!
a. The reason that so many Christians do not
have this peace that passes all understanding
is that they have ignored the solution and
only focus on problems and their meager and
totally limited abilities to fix those problem.
II. The next element of our text is that perfect peace will
come to those who “CONTINUE TO TRUST....”
A. Humans have some infuriating habits......one of
the most frustrating habits is that of inconsistency.
1. We can start off just right, but just let a little
time pass by and all of our best intentions
fizzle like water poured on a campfire.
a. Starting things and not finishing them
is a trade-mark of some.
1.) This may be frustrating to some,
but.....not finishing the bookcase
is not a matter of life and death.
2.) With our trust, reliance, and contact
with God, however, it can be a life
and death problem......it can mean
the difference between a contented
and peaceful life in Christ or a life
of turmoil; a lack of faith; a sinful
attitude towards God and fellow
Christians.
B. Walking in Christ is not an on-again-off-again
thing.
1. God is not a toy or a doll that we can play with
until we’re tired of Him and then we can put
Him away again until we need Him.
2. He is not our wishing-well that we can go to
whenever we want something.
a. Sure God will give us blessings.....but
He wants our lives.....He wants our
fears.....He wants our dreams and desires.
C. So often we pray.....we see the answer to our
prayers......we thank God for His faithfulness to
us and them we promptly forget to even speak to
Him again until we have another need to be ful-
filled........or until we are prodded by others or our
own consciences.
1. This can especially be seen in the “little,
everyday things of life”.....sore backs ....
children with temperatures.....and many other
things that catch our attention.
a. I ask, “In what way are we different from
the rest of the world?”
1.) When I was a little kid and broke
my arm in several places......first
time ever broke anything......really
weird and odd dangling of the
arm.....boy did I pray and promise
and repent....etc..
a.) As soon as I was better and
realized that they weren’t
going to cut off my arm......I
forgot all those prayers and
promises.
b. Christians are no different if they keep
God in a little box and take Him out
whenever they need Him and put Him
back in the box and ignore Him the rest
of the time.
D. God wants to be a part of our lives.....when He
IS allowed to be included in our lives, our lives
are filled with the joy and peace that only God
can provide.
1. We need to trust Him and look to Him as we
face difficult dicisions and tasks, but we also
need to turn to Him with our everyday “little”
problems.
** We must strive to keep God alive in our minds and turn
to Him, in faith (trust?) when we face the turmoil and
problems that face us every day.
III. Finally, we can rely on God for our strength......In our
text we find, “In the Lord is everlasting strength”.
Matt. 19:26 - 26But Jesus looked at them and said to
them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things
are possible.”
A. The reason that we have fear and the world can
cause us to focus so hard on it.....and not on God,
is the fact that we feel overwhelmed.
1. We don’t have the strength to overcome and
therefore, everything is a threat to us.
B. Again we go back to this thing of trust....or faith.
1. So often we insist on battling the dragons of
this world.......even though we know that we
are more often, than not, going to be eaten by
them.
a. Don Quixote was demented, and we can
laugh and cry at the same time as he
charges windmills with his lance.
b. Even though we may see the silliness of
Don and the windmills.........are we not
doing the same things?
1.) We have this overwhelming urge
to do battle with every single thing
that comes our way.......never
with a thought of how God might
fit into the picture.
a.) So we lie at the bases of the
windmills of life and wonder
why we are always defeated
and overwhelmed by all the
problems that come our way.
** Is it because we might be just a little bit too proud?
1. We say that we don’t want to disturb Him with
little trifles.
2. We say that we forget to go to Him in prayer.
3. We say that we are overcome by the magnitude of
the problem.
a. And yet......we try to solve all these problems
ourselves.
** I wonder why God says, “humble yourselves”....so
often when it comes to prayers?
1. Could it be that we just don’t want to admit our
limitations and shortcomings?
CONCLUSION:
God wants to give us the victory.......God wants to give us
the peace which passes all understanding.
A. We continue to defeat His will by not submitting
to it......by not seeking it out.......by continuing in
pride and not admitting our shortcomings and
failing to seek out the strength and peace and
victory that God has for us.
How long will we stubbornly insist on trying to handle all
of life’s problems, by ourselves?
A. Can’t we see how we are hurting ourselves in both
the physical and the spiritual realms?
You can trust God with your life......you can trust God to
handle your problems........you need not worry when you
turn things over to God........your hopes....your dreams,
need to be fully in God and not in your own abilities or
inability’s.
A. If you can trust Him......I mean really trust Him......
in everything......He has more for you than you
could ever possibly imagine.
I Cor. 2:9 - 9But as it is written: “Eye has not
seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the
heart of man The things which God has
prepared for those who love Him.”
Really.......WHO DO YOU REALLY TRUST?
Psalm 56:11 - 11 In God I have put my trust; I will
not be afraid. What can man do to me?
