This morning I conclude a sermon series that started out as only one sermon. Our topic has been grasping God’s peace in the midst of our Life’s storms. Each sermon that God has given to me has seemed to speak directly to me. - Testing me to see if my words met my own actions and responses.
And after this past week I am sorry to say I didn’t do so well on the test. As many of you know this past week was a week of vacation where a part of the week would be spent in Spartanburg at an evangelism conference and the other part in Asheville letting Faith see snow.
In my own ideal world I had looked forward to this moment since India. Taking my family on a vacation spending quality family time- all happily together.
There in close quarters Caleb decided to spike a fever, scream uncontrollably, not sleep at night, refuse to drink milk or any juices, you name it he did it. It got so bad that on Tuesday Night we thought about just going home and foregoing Asheville, but two things kept us from going first we had already prepaid the hotel in Asheville and second we had promised Faith snow.
So we limped to Asheville. But after a smaller hotel room, a much louder inconsolable Caleb, I personally lost it. In the midst of the storm my eyes went straight to the waves around me and not to the face of Jesus. In fact anger flooded over me like a Tsunami as we retreated back home a day earlier than we had planned. The ride backed reeked of every negative emotion I could muster from anger to frustration to despair.
So as I prepare and later deliver this message. I feel a bit like Peter who after walking on the water had to be rescued from drowning by Jesus. All because he took his eyes off Jesus.
There are many things, many life events that cause us to focus on our life circumstances instead of on Christ, and when our eyes do this, we are robbed of our peace and joy.
In the word of God we are promised Peace, but it is a conditional promise. A promise that will only come about if certain conditions are met, if we do or don’t do certain things.
Listen to our promise of peace… It is found in the book of Philippians chapter 4 verse 7...
If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Sound good… It is this kind of peace that our world is looking for… A peace that draws people to Christ… To the answer…
Sadly though it is a peace that very few Christians daily walk in… A peace that is offered but rarely accepted rarely received.
A peace that is supernaturally directed that rises above all our life circumstances and storms.
An obvious question to ask at this point would be Why?
Why Not? Well before we pose a possible response to the Why? Let’s take a look at the conditions that must be met to receive this peace.
We find this is the verse before the one we last read. Verse 6 of the book of Philippians.
Don’t worry about anything instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
Three commands or conditions are listed in this passage.
First we are commanded to Not Worry
To not focus upon our life situations, To not linger with them, replaying situation after possible situation only to find us powerless to do anything about them.
As I reflected upon this command, I thought about situations where we would not worry. I thought of a child parent, teacher student, boss worker or mentor mentored scenarios. Where we trust the other person placing our cares and our concerns in their hands.
I saw happen in a small way when we all went to New York. We all loaded up in a 54 seat Bus where we were driven to Brooklyn. Most of us enjoyed the ride. Trusting the driver to make all the right and safe decisions. And as we worked in a rather unique and diverse Brooklyn culture, many trusted that the leaders of this trip or their pastor would keep them safe. Even when a homeless man decided to barrage us with insults and swear words.
You get the picture not fretting or worrying is possible when we trust in someone else to protect and provide for us.
Although our bus driver, trip leaders, and even your pastor try their pastor to keep you safe, how much more is our God. Almighty, all knowing, all powerful, always present, creator God. He is able to keep us safe. He is able to handle any life storm that you will ever go through. He can handle it all.
If you really trust our God, If you really believe that Jesus is real and personally desires to be in relationship with you and will take care of you. Then choose to focus upon Jesus and lay your personal worries at the of Jesus.
The choice is ours hold on to it ourselves or let it go.
The second command is to Pray… to let God know what we need
Once we focus upon God choosing to really trust Him, then we are commanded to pray- to let God know what we need.
It is here where we need to pray like little children. Children are very specific. They pray for a broken toy, sunshine to play in, and a stomach ache to go away. They are also honest. Faith recently at the dinner table with my parents prayed Please Lord help this food to taste good. Spell out to God.
A story is told of Danny Thomas. The late Danny Thomas lost his life savings of $600.00 at a time when he was out of work. He and his wife, Rosie, had a baby on the way, and they needed money. Danny worked at part-time jobs so Rosie could buy groceries. He also borrowed money from friends. It was a tough time in his life.
A week before the baby was born, Danny had the grand total of seven dollars and eighty-five cents to his name. What would he do? "My despair led me to my first exposure to the powers of faith," Danny recalled.
On Sunday morning Danny went to church. When the offering plate was passed he put in his "usual one dollar." But something unexpected happened that day. A special missions offering was taken. The priest explained where the mission offering would go, and Danny felt he had to give something. "I got carried away," Danny said, "and ended up giving my seven dollars."
He had given away all his money that Sunday. What in the world had he done? He walked up to the altar rail, got on his knees and prayed aloud. "Look, I’ve given my last seven bucks," he prayed. "I need it back tenfold because I’ve got a kid on the way, and I have to pay the hospital bill." He went home with a mere eighty-five cents in his pocket--all the money he had in the world.
"You won’t believe this," Danny Thomas later wrote, "but the next morning the phone rang in the rooming house hall." It was a job offer. He was offered a part in a commercial. The job wasn’t much but the pay was good--seventy-five dollars. "I literally dropped the telephone receiver," Danny remembered. "First I whooped with joy; then an eerie feeling came over me." He remembered what he had prayed at church the day before. "The seventy-five dollar fee," he said, "unheard of for me at that time was almost exactly ten times the amount of money I had donated to the church."
Friends we miss many blessings simply because we don’t tell God what we need. Because we are not specific and honest with the Lord, we miss the joy of seeing God answer our prayers.
The third command is to thank Him
Even before God answers our prayers… Even before his answer comes we must thank him.
When we pray we must expect God to answer, to respond…
The best way to break out of any despair or sadness is to stop and simply either make a written or mental list of everything that God has done for you, everything that you have… every blessing you have received . We are not only a blessed people but a thankless people who rarely says Thank you. Take the time this week to personally thank God for all he has done.
I close with this story that perfectly communicates the secret to peace and to trust.
There was a little boy who was caught in a fire at home. He could not get out of the burning house. He climbed up out onto the roof of the burning home, and began to cry for his father’s help. The father looked up at his son from the ground, and told him to jump. “I can’t see you though daddy, how will you catch me?” said the son. The father said, “I can see you”. Without further hesitation the boy jumped into his father’s arms.
Sometimes we need to have that same type of pure faith that a child has in their parents in our Heavenly father.
