FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT – SON- RIPENED FRUIT - PEACE
Philippians 4:1-9
Today were looking at the fruit of the spirit: PEACE
Peace is very much on our minds as we deal with the war on terrorism.
Every Family here would like to get their service boys and girls
back home again safe and sound, not in a box or a bag.
We’d like the bombing to stop, the guns to be shelved.
But peace has always been elusive.
Society of International Law, in London, states that during the last 4,000 years
there have been only 268 years of world peace.
85% of all history concerns itself with WAR.
In all the years over 8000 peace treaties were made--and broken.
Because true peace is not to be found outside of the human heart.
It is to be found inside through a relationship with our Creator God.
Peace is not a state of mind, or a circumstance in nature,
It is a condition of the heart.
It is a fruit of the Spirit
A gift from God.
When our heart is out of kilter, then our peace is out of kilter.
There is a story a few years ago of when
Jack Kennedy was president and
Golda Meier Premier of Israel, and
Nikita Khrushchev was Premier of the Soviet union.
All got together for a peace conference decided to pray about the concerns on their heart.
Nikita Khrushchev asked God: if there would ever be peace between the United state and Russia. And God said: Not in your lifetime, Not in your lifetime.
Jack Kennedy asked God-will there be peace in America between the Blacks and the whites. God said Not in your lifetime, not in your lifetime
Golda Meier asked God- will there be peace between the Arab and the Jews? God said; Not in my lifetime, Not in my lifetime.
Man was made to worship his Creator,
And If we are out of sink with God
There will never be peace in the soul.
Real Peace consists not in the absence of danger but in the presence of God
Today I want you to look with me at
Three kinds of peace God has for the Christian believer.
First we want to look at the
I. UPWARD PEACE- PEACE WITH GOD.
One of the most beautiful names given to our Father in heaven is
“The God of peace” Romans 16:20
Isaiah 9:6 “And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, The mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”
Have you seen the bumper sticker that reads,
"No Jesus, No peace”!
Then underneath it are these words,
"Know Jesus, Know Peace."
That’s not only a clever bumper sticker, it’s also Biblically accurate.
If you know Jesus you will know peace.
If you don’t know Jesus, there will be no peace in your life.
Our whole world turn to pills, promiscuity; self help programs and Spirits.
Some turn to God.
Someone suggested that 5 million people go to sleep at night with the aid of a sleeping pill. One man was so addicted to the pills that he set his alarm clock at 12:00 every night to wake himself up so he could take his sleeping pill.
John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
Once we have accepted Jesus as our Savior, once we have repented of our sins & are faithful to Him in Christian living we discover a peace with God.
THIS IS AN UPWARD PEACE.
NO LONGER ESTRANGED FROM GOD.
No longer SEPERATED.
“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, …His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. …For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”
Ephesians 2:14-17
How many of you still can remember the battle you had
To let go of yourself and to trust God.
The formula for UPWARD PEACE.
Come only when there is a rooting out,
Pulling down, destroying, the false ideals, gods, attitudes, and thought processes.
That are in conflict with Christ.
That is what can cause turmoil and tension.
No man can serve two master.
I remember as a young boy climbing the windmill on our farm.
I got up about 15 feet in the air thinking of going the full 60,
when I paused to look down.
My heart stopped.
My hands froze.
At 15 feet I as terrified and traped.
I couldn’t go up and I couldn’t go down.
There are many people who are caught that way in life.
Mom had to come over and talk me down.
I couldn’t trust myself.
She had to climb up beside me and helped me let go.
You can’t put new wine in old wineskins.
A well can’t give both bitter and sweet water.
Before peace can come our lives
there must be the transformation of character
which Jesus termed the new birth.
Peace is a deep abiding “rightness” inside.
Knowing that we are one with God.
Ephesians 2:14-17, For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.
Romans 5: 1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.
Have you found this peace of letting go to God?
When John was an 11 year old boy his father trained him in the art of being a master Captain of a trade ship. When the British Navy drafted him-- he could have done well as the Captain of the Royal Navy ship, but he lacked self discipline, and got in with the wrong crew. John was arrested for desertion, publicly flogged and demoted to common sailor. At 21 John hopped on board an outbound ship from the African coast, and continued in the depravity of his teens, getting involved with the lowest of crew members. He would ridicule the seamen in his company, ridiculed the ships’ Captain and even ridiculed a book he had found on board, Entitled the Imitation of Christ.
But that night the ship sailed into a violent storm and John awakened with a cabin filled with seawater. The ship’s side had cave in and ordinarily such damage would send a ship to the bottom within a few minutes. The buoyant cargo, however, bought a few hours of precious time. After nine hours at the pumps, John overhead a desperate remark form one of the crew. They were all goners. For the first time in his life he prayed. “If this will not do, the Lord have mercy on us.”
Miraculously the ship did not go down. Did John’s forget his prayer. No it was remembered with prayer and fasting, every year on its anniversary as the most significant incident in his life. And John Newton retired form the sea to become a minister. And who wrote the words to this popular hymn we sing:
“Amazing grace. How sweet the sound,
that saved a wretch like me.”
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
John Newton found that night at sea : the Upward Peace WITH God in Christ Jesus.
I. UPWARD PEACE- PEACE WITH GOD
II. INWARD PEACE- PEACE OF GOD
This is the peace a that Comes when we face Dark times.
Peace to live with yourself in any and all circumstances of life.
Philippians 4:7 “The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Do you have that inner peace of God?
Danny Simpson a 24 year old Canadian, went to jail for robbing a bank, in Ottawa.
His gun went to a museum. He was arrested for robbing a bank of $6,000 and
then sent to jail for six years. He had used a .45 caliber Colt semi-automatic, which turned out to be an antique made by the Ross Rifle Company, Quebec City, in 1918. The pistol is worth up to $100,000. If Danny Simpson had just known what he carried in his hand, he wouldn’t have robbed the bank.
In other words, Danny already had what he needed.
There are so many Christian in the world today who
are searching for peace, not knowing they already have
what they need in their heart.
What they need in their hands.
Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Did you ever think of Peace as a guard?
“Will Guard your hearts and Minds in Christ Jesus.”
A few week ago I was in the kidney dialysis unit of the hospital and talking with a man who needed a kidney transplant. It had not been the best year for him or his family. With diabetes, and kidney failure. With his daughter being sick. With the trip almost every three months to Rochester. Then came the illness and death of his father in law. It was almost overbearing for them, it seemed at every turn there was a new distress and crises. Well for many years he has been awaiting a transplant that wasn’t coming.
I asked him how do you do it? How do you keep up.
He said it not easy,
but I just have this belief that God is going to take care of me.
God will see my family through this.
That is the kind of peace the scripture talks about.
That Guards ones heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
It guards us against disappointment.
It guards us against the storms of disappointment.
Yes his father in Law died, But he also just received on Monday this week
His Kidney and Pancreas transplant.
Scripture says: “The peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
How can a mother taking care of her sick child who has slowly deteriorated over the past 5 years face the future without this child. When I asked her she said: I know that God loves her and as long as I can have her I will love her and when she is gone from me She will be in heaven with Jesus.
The PEACE OF God which transcend all understanding
Will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Some of you here today have lost a child in birth.
Some of you have lost a husband others a wife.
Some of you have lost your purity and balance in life because of cancer or heart disease.
I could go on and one here today>
Many times in our services I just look over this congregation and
I pray for you, because I know that many of you have great burdens
And needs in your life.
I see the tears streaming down your face.
I see the grief in your eyes.
I see the confused and frustrated looks that can come from raising children.
After the service,
When I shake your hands many of you will thank me for the service today.
You will share how blessed you are by God.
One lady said to me:
Its been very hard coming to church Since I lost my husband.
But being here today just reaffirms the peace I have with God.
God is with me.
We’re talking about something that is beyond the touch of humanity.
We’re talking about something that the world can’t comprehend.
We’re talking about something that we don’t always understand.
But I know that many of you know about the peace of God
That passes all understanding.
That fills your soul when you a job is lost.
When a career is changed, when the bills are still coming.
When our kids are a disappointment.
Do we need to understand it to have it?
No.
Philippians 4:7 “The peace of God which (passes) transcends all understanding.
Will guard your hearts and mind in Christ Jesus.”
This is not just for today.
But
II Thessalonians 3:16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way.
It’s for all time and in every way.
One of the great hymns of faith we sing
Was written by a man who was a successful attorney in Chicago,
The Father of five children.
An active member of a Presbyterian church.
His successful life suddenly turned to disaster
Without warning his only son died.
Then in the Chicago fire he lost all his real estate investments.
He decided to take his family to Europe to lift their spirits
And assist Dwight L. Moody in his evangelistic campaign.
He sent his wife and four daughters ahead by ship.
Halfway across the Atlantic their ship was struck by an English ship and sank in 12 minutes. Tanetta, Maggie, Annie and Bessie drowned in the watery grave.
Miraculously Mrs. Spafford was saved.
When Horactio was standing on the ship carrying him to rejoin his sorrowing wife in Wales. The ship passed the approximate place where his precious daughters had drowned. Overwhelmed in his grief he took out a legal pad and wrote.
“When sorrow s like sea billows roll,
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.”
That is a peace within that passes all understanding.
Only God can give it to sustain us, to keep us in the midst of the storm.
Isaiah 26:3 “God will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.”
That is a picture of a mind at rest
because it is filled with a knowledge of the almighty.
I. UPWARD PEACE- PEACE WITH GOD
II. INWARD PEACE- PEACE OF GOD
III. OUTWARD PEACE- PEACE WITH ONE ANOTHER
This comes when we face our friends.
Philippians 4: 2 “I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.”
A non Christian can no more produce the peace of God in their home then a
A chicken can bark like a dog.
It won’t happen.
Because they come from different roots.
But once we find a common root in Christ.
Then we should be children of peace.
Getting along with one another.
II Tim 2:23-24 Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.
The Apostle Paul airs the dirty laundry of the early church
to show us how devastation it is
when there is disunity and disharmony within.
If there is one thing that can win to the world to Christ.
It is our unity. Our peaceful living with one another.
But If there is one thing that can keep people out of the church it is our
Bickering and fighting.
How many time I have heard someone say:
I’ll never go to church because they are always fighting over something.
We’re never told what Unice and Synthia are fighting over
But it was enough of a fight for the news to have spread all the way to the Apostle in a Roman Prison. Everybody in the world hears when Christians aren’t getting alone.
It’s a bad witness for everyone.
Paul writes: Philippians 4: 2 “I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord.”
Stop fighting.
How are you doing at treating on another peacefully?
In your family, neighborhood, your circle, or the church?
Jesus said: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God. Mattehw 5;9
Doctors at a hospital in Brooklyn, New York have gone on strike. Hospital
officials say they will negotiate the Doctors’ demands just as soon as
they can get a pharmacist over there to read the picket signs.
Jesus came as the Prince of peace.
Not the prince of patience.
Not the prince of gentleness
Not the prince of faithfulness.
Not the prince of kindness,
The prince of peace.
Because peace is all about relationships.
And the way we treat one another mirrors our relationship with God.
Whatever you do, don’t let those who have wronged you
Control you for the rest of your life.
Three young men were brought to trial in a West Memphis,Arkansas court for killing three- (eight year olds), the father of one of the dead girls suddenly rushed at the young man screaming, "I’ll chase you all the way to hell!" I understand the father’s fierce anger, but there is something almost prophetic about his words. If we allow our hatred for those who have wronged us to go unchecked, it will eventually destroy us. We will follow our bitterness "all the way to hell."
It will not only destroy us but the church of which were a part.
Will you be at peace with your loved ones?
Let me close by sharing and Acronymn for peace in your home and marriage.
P-PLAN YOUR ACTION
Don’t do or say something before you think.
The young husband was a henpecked and he was going to a psychiatrist about
the problem. The doctor told him, "You don’t have to let your wife bully you! Go home and show her you’re the boss! The young man got home, slammed the door, shook his fist in his wife’s face, and growled, "From now on, you’re taking orders from ME! When I get home from work, I want my supper ON the table.
I want my clothes laid out.
I’m will be going out with the boys.
Your will be staying home.
And another thing.
Do you know who’s going to tie my tie
Yes she said: The undertaker.
Plan your strategy: don’t rely on the advice of the world to Bring peace into your home. Peace is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 5:24 “If you remember your brother has something against you go at once to make peace.”
E-EMPATHIZE WITH THEIR FEELINGS
Don’t just have a talk. Empathize with them.
Listen without lecturing.
Men make an effort to understand your wife.
Peace making is a hard thing.
Rom 12:16 Paraphased: “Bear the burden of being considerate of others doubts and fears.”
Try to understand your wives.
Don’t just look like your listening---Listen to them.
I should have some of you wives come up and speak.
Some of you look eager.
I don’t think will have enough time to day.
Focus on the needs of others.
Focus on correcting the problem and not the person.
A—ATTACK THE PROBLEM, NOT THE PERSON
C- COOPERATE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.
ROM 12:21 “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Do all things possible on your part.
James 3 Says: wisdom is peace loving and courteous, it allow discussion full of mercy and good deeds.
If your wise you will compromise.
All grace relationship are built on compromise.
A lady was walking down the street to work and saw a parrot in a pet store.
She stopped to admire the bird. The parrot said to her, "Hey lady, you are
really ugly." Well, the lady is furious! She storms past the store to her work. On the way home she saw the same parrot in the window and the parrot upon seeing her says, "Hey lady, you are really ugly." Well, she was incredibly upset. She went in to see the story manager and they agreed if the parrot doesn’t stop talking like that it will be killed. The next day when the lady walked past the store after work the parrot said to her, "Hey lady." She paused and said, "Yes?"
The bird said, "You know."
Most marriage don’t end because of adultery, alcohol, or abuse.
But because of inflexibility,
one becomes unbendable, incompatabile.
E- Emphasize reconciliation not resolution
There is a great difference between the two
Reconciliation means to reestablish the relationship.
Resolution tries to resolve every issue.
We’re individuals.
We think differently.
Not every issue will be resolved.
No matter how much I want it.
But we can always work toward reconciliation.
We can always work towards loving one another.
We can always work toward peace in our homes.
Let us show the world that peace we find that passes all understanding
In Christ Jesus our lord.
III. UPWARD PEACE- PEACE WITH GOD
IV. INWARD PEACE- PEACE OF GOD
III. OUTWARD PEACE- PEACE WITH ONE ANOTHER
