We are living in a day and age that is more informed and connected than ever before, and yet it seems like we are amongst the most worrisome days as well.
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Global conflicts
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Rapid rise of AI
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Inflation
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Political
divisions
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Retirement
concerns
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Personal
diagnoses
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Marriage strains
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The kind of world
our kids are growing up in
• The fear of uncertainty
Here is the truth, people are looking for peace. The world is desperate for it. And you and I can use a little more of it in our life.
Illustration:
I once heard a story of a man. There was a man named Thomas. Thomas grew up poor. Not only was he poor financially, but also mentally conditioned to survive. He worked two jobs his entire life. Budgeted every dollar. Never expected help from anyone. He had an uncle he wasn’t very close to. He was wealthy, successful, but was quiet about it. When his uncle passed away, Thomas attended the funeral out of respect. A few weeks later, he received a certified letter in the mail from a law office. It said he had been named in the will.
He assumed it was sentimental. Maybe a watch, maybe a small check. But when he went to the attorney’s office, he was told that his uncle had left him a substantial inheritance; millions.
More than enough to eliminate debt.
More than enough to change his family’s future.
More than enough to live differently.
The attorney handed him the paperwork and explained the account information. Everything had already been deposited. It was legally his. However, there was only one problem: Thomas didn’t believe it. He left the office stunned. He put the documents in a drawer at home and he told no one.
He kept working two jobs.
Kept stressing about bills.
Kept arguing with his wife about money.
Kept living as if nothing had changed.
After months went by, one day his wife found the paperwork while cleaning. She couldn’t believe it. She marched into the bank with the documents and met with a financial advisor. She found out that it was real. The money had been sitting there the entire time.
They had been struggling… while they were wealthy.
They had been anxious… while they were secure.
They had been living broke… while provision was already theirs.
You see, the inheritance wasn’t the problem, “access” was.
Similarly, you and I have been given an inheritance of peace. That peace is available to us, but we must access it. Jesus talks about this peace in our the scripture we are going to read today.
In John 14, Jesus is hours away from being arrested and taken to trial. He is speaking with His disciples trying to tell them what was about to happen. Jesus knew that His disciples were about to go through the hardest moment in their life. They were going to witness Jesus be arrested and some see him be beaten, mocked, and crucified. All of them would abandon Him. Jesus knew what was coming. And it was in that vein that Jesus shared these words…
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.”
Jesus said that in the most difficult moment of their life, He was leaving them with peace. So before we go any further we must ask the question, what exactly is this peace that Jesus is referring to?
In the new testament, the word peace is used primarily in two different ways:
Peace with God — Position of Peace
Romans 5:1 —
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ”
If you are a believer in Jesus
Christ, then you have peace with God. If you have not yet received the free
gift of salvation in your life, then the Bible says that you are at enmity with
God.
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Before I received
Christ, I was at enmity with God. Because of sin, there was a massive rift in
between us and God.
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There was nothing
you or I could do to close that gap on our own. There is not enough good we
could do to earn our way back to God. Before Christ, you and I had no shot at
getting right with God.
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But thanks be to
God for Jesus Christ for coming for one reason and one reason only, to take
your place by dying on the cross. By doing so He paid the debt that we owed and
exchanged our sin for His righteousness.
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And now every
person who calls on the name of Jesus will be saved! That is the truth!
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Peace with God is
the most important peace that you and I could have.
• If you have not accepted Jesus, my prayer is that today would be your day.
The Peace of God — Condition of Peace
This is the peace that Jesus was referring to.
Peace of God = An inward calm and confidence in knowing who God is; regardless of the surrounding circumstances.
Jesus says that He was leaving peace with His disciples; not just any peace, but His peace. This is the same peace that allowed Him to sleep during a storm, stand silent before His accusers, and walk toward the cross with boldness. That same peace He was leaving with His disciples.
This was different from the peace the world gives. The world offers to give us peace that provides a moment of distraction or a chance to escape the worries and stresses of life. It is momentary and fragile at best.
However, Jesus said that He was leaving “His” peace. This is the same peace that has been left to you and I. He was leaving it to us like a legacy. There is a peace available to you and I that resided in Jesus. Let’s dive into it some more.
Peace = (Eirēnē) = Tranquility of the soul; to be free from disturbance
Now it would be nice to be free from problems, free from circumstances, and free from the consequences they bring. But that is not what this is referring to. It is an inner peace that is undisturbed from the circumstances surrounding it.
This is good, but to really understand what this is implying we have to go to the Hebrew.
Peace = (Shalom) = Completeness; Wholeness; Total inward peace
This is a heavenly kind of peace, one that the world knows nothing about. This is peace that only comes from God.
So the question is, how do I find
this peace? How do I find peace when…
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Things are
stressful at work
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The doctor gives
you a bad diagnosis
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Trying to make
ends meet financially
• Feeling overwhelmed and anxious everyday
How do we find this peace?
Isaiah 26:3 — “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”
Perfect peace here is actually written as “peace peace.” That is a double peace, a double portion of peace. It says that you will be kept in perfect and heavenly peace when your mind and your thoughts are stayed (fixed) on God.
In other words, peace in our life is determined by our thoughts. There is a battle for peace in our life, and that battle is fought and won in our mind. In fact, just about any battle we face in life is fought and won in our mind.
The Bible says that we are in a spiritual war. This war is a battle of truth. God wants all people to come to know the truth in Jesus Christ. Satan wants to do everything he can to deceive us from the truth, and pull us away from God. One of the pieces of spiritual armor that Ephesians 6 tells us to put on is the helmet of salvation. Why? Because while our soul is saved our mind is not. The one area the enemy wants to gain ground in is your mind. If he can gain control of your mind, then he can gain control of your life.
What we think about the most, consumes us the most. What consumes us the most will control our life. Therefore, it is important that pay attention to what we fix our minds on.
We find peace in our life when we fix our mind on God. That word “fix” means to “lean fully” or to “rest completely.” In other words, to fix our mind on God means for us to rest our minds on the truth of God’s word and lean fully one Him. It means to rest completely on the promises that He has made available to you and I.
So the question is, what are you fixing your mind on? Is your mind fixed on what’s happening in the world around us? Is your mind fixed on the problems you are currently facing? Is your mind fixed on the worst case scenario? If our mind us fixed on these things then we will never experience peace. We must fix our mind on God!
Philippians 4:8-9
NLT
“8 Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise… Then the God of peace will be with you.”
When you fix your mind and rest your thoughts on the things of God, then the God of peace will be with you!
How do we fix our thoughts
on God?
So how do we access this peace in our life? It is found a couple of verses earlier in Philippians chapter 4.
Philippians 4:6-7
“6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
1.
Don’t
worry about anything
• Refuse to allow anxiety to rule your life
• Refuse to allow yourself to be consumed by the
problems around you
• Don’t allow yourself to be drowned out by all the
worries of life
• Choose to trust in God instead
• Don’t make worrying your master, trust in God!
2.
Pray
about everything
• Replace your worries with prayer
• Don’t ignore the problem, but redirect it to God in
prayer
• Don’t rehearse the situation over and over, but
release it to God
• Worrying is meditation on the problem, prayer is
meditation with God about the problem
• If it’s big enough to worry about, its big enough to
pray about
3.
Tell
God what you need
• Supplication literally means “earnest, specific,
heartfelt requests”
• In other words, get specific with God
• Instead of worrying about the problem, tell God
exactly what you need
• Match the level of detail in your prayer to the level
of detail in your worry
• Whatever you are replaying in your mind specifically,
pray about it specifically
4.
Thank
God for what He has done
• Give it to God
• Begin to thank God for who he is and all that He has
done
• Gratitude is not based on the results but on the
character of God
• Thanksgiving recalibrates our mind (what has God
brought me through?)
• Thanksgiving builds faith while you wait on God (if
He did it before…)
• Thanksgiving is an act of surrender (trusting God
with the outcome).
5.
Peace
of God will guard your heart and mind
• When we do these things, we experience the peace of
God
• God’s peace surpassing our ability to understand
• His peace guards and protects our heart and mind from
worry and fear
• This is the peace that Jesus has given us!
Let me encourage you to receive
what Jesus has already given you, His peace. We don’t need more control, we
don’t need more information, and we don’t need more distraction. What we need
is more of the peace of God in our life. Let’s win the battle of peace by
fixing out thoughts on God. Let us stop worrying and start handing the problem
over to God in prayer. In exchange, we will receive His peace that guards our
heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
