Christmas 2019
Week 3 (Peace)
What Jesus wants for Christmas!
Preparing to receive the lost!
Peace
Is: freedom from disturbance; quiet and tranquility.
C. S. Lewis:
“God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”
Wisdom: My greatest desire this Christmas for you, is that you find true peace. A peace that can’t be found in this world.
So, Jesus has come to earth to introduce a peace among God’s people. And there are three relationships in which He wants you to pursue this peace and enjoy this peace.
Peace with God,
Peace with your own soul,
and peace with other people.
And by peace, I mean not only the absence of conflict and animosity but also the presence of a joyful tranquility.
for us to have peace we must believe! (if you're new)
· The key to Joy and peace is believing
· In other words, the way God’s promises become real for us and produce peace in us and through us is “in believing.”
· That’s true whether we are talking about peace with God, peace with ourselves, or peace with others.
The Main Point of Peace!
God’s purpose is to give you peace by being the center of your life.
Five times in the New Testament He is called “the God of peace”
Romans 15:13 (NLT)
13I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 16:20 (NLT)
20The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
Philippians 4:9 (NLT)
9Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NLT)
23Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.
Hebrews 13:20 (NLT)
20Now may the God of peace— who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood—
· And Jesus said, “My peace I give to you” John 14:27
· And Paul said “Jesus himself is our peace” Ephesians 2:14
· What this means is that the peace of God, or the peace of Christ, can never be separated from God Himself and Christ Himself.
· If we want peace to rule in our lives, God must rule our lives.
· Christ must rule in our lives.
· God’s purpose is not to give you peace separate from Himself.
· His purpose is to give you peace by being the center of your life.
So, the key to peace is keeping together what the angels keep together: Glory to God and peace to man. A heart bent on showing the glory of God, will know the peace of God.
So, let’s look at each of these three peaceful relationships briefly and make sure that you are enjoying as much as you can.
Peace with God
Romans 5:1 (ESV)
1Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
· The most basic need we have is peace with God.
· This is foundational to all our pursuits of peace.
· If we don’t go here first, all other experiences of peace will be superficial and temporary.
· Justified means that God declares you to be just in His sight by imputing to you the righteousness of Jesus.
· And He does that by faith alone:
o Not by works.
o Not by tradition.
o Not by baptism.
o Not by church membership.
o But by faith alone.
· When we believe in Jesus as the Savior and the Lord and the supreme Treasure of our lives, we are united to Him and His righteousness is counted by God as ours. We are justified by faith.
John Piper:
And the result is peace with God. God’s anger at us because of our sin is put away. Our rebellion against Him is overcome. God adopts us into His family. And from now on all His dealings with us are for our good. He will never be against us. He is our Father and our Friend. We have peace. We don’t need to be afraid anymore. This is foundational to all other relationships!
Peace with ourselves!
And because we have peace with God because of being justified by faith, we can begin to grow in the enjoyment of peace with ourselves.
· I am talking about any sense of guilt or anxiety that tends to paralyze us or make us hopeless.
· Here again, believing the promises of God with a view to glorifying God in our lives is key.
Philippians 4:6–7 (NLT)
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.
7Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
· The key to this passage is that God is telling us to expect our hearts and minds to be attacked with
o With worry
o With guilt
o With anxiety
o With confusion
o With uncertainties
· They all threaten us
But God wants to Guard your heart and mind!
· With peace
· But we must take all our worries to Him in prayer
o And leave them at the cross
o This is not easy
o It is a constant battle for some of us
o We feel we are not worthy
o That God doesn’t love us
o And we forget that Jesus already made peace with God for us
Wisdom: I know some of you are battling, I know some of you are right on the ragged edge, we are all in this together, don’t isolate yourself, reach out and walk with someone!
Peace with Others!
Romans 12:18 (AMP)
18 If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
· The third relationship where God wants us to enjoy His peace is in our relationships with other people.
· This is the one we have the least control over.
This time of year is hard!
· For many of you when you get together with family for Christmas, there will be some awkward and painful relationships.
· Some of the pain is very old. And some of it is new.
· In some relationships, you know what you have to do, no matter how hard it is.
· And in some of them you are baffled and don’t know what the path of peace looks like.
· Family is hard, relationships are sometimes hard
· So, suck it up buttercup!
How do we have peace with people we don’t like??
Ephesians 4:30–32 (ESV)
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
· God forgave you, He continually forgives you
· So, we forgive, and we continue to forgive
· We humble ourselves in the fact that God keeps forgiving us
“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” This is why he came That God would get glory and that you would know peace. May the God of peace give you peace and may you give him the glory.
No comments:
Post a Comment