Live Like a Champion – Week 31

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01
Aug '21

Live Like a Champion – Week 31

Posted on Aug 1, 2021 by Jerry Ingalls in General, Live Like a Champion, Sermon Notes |

01
Aug '21

The Promise of Peace!

John 16:33 (NAS95)

(This was presented at the FBC Picnic in the Memorial Park Shelter House.)

What a joy to be having church services in the park! We are worshipping the Creator and Sustainer of all creation! Being outdoors—camping, hiking, trail running, walking—brings me peace. I experience God in His creation! As Isaiah 55:12 declares,
 
“For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”

 

It is clear in God’s word that peace and joy are deeply intertwined! How can we experience the joy of the LORD if we don’t first have peace with God first?

 

This morning, I want to briefly teach you about God’s promise of peace. There are three aspects to this peace that I will invite you to experience as the provision of God’s promise for you: (1) peace with God; (2) peace with yourself (mental health or peace of mind); and (3) peace with others (a peaceful heart). These three aspects of the promise of peace are a cord of three strands for us to experience the joy of the Lord and to fulfill His Greatest Commandments for our lives.

 

The memory verse for today is John 16:33,
 
“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

 

Our memory verse can be applied to all three aspects of peace, but Jesus here is specifically talking about His saving work on the cross, which gives us peace with God! Jesus has defeated the power of death and the forces of evil to restore us back into right relationship with the Father; it is only “in Christ” that we can have “peace” or “access to” or relationship with God.

 

Listen to this peace that Jesus promises us:

  • John 14:27 – “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”
  • Colossians 1:20a – “Through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross…”
  • Romans 5:1-2 – “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.”

 

This promise of peace not only restores us back into right relationship with God, but because of the love of God working in us we can now have peace with ourselves, then with others. It is through this peace that we can ultimately satisfy the Greatest Commandments. Listen to Jesus’ summary of the Law and commandments from Matthew 22:37-39:
 
“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

 

We are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves—by grace!
 

This requires God’s peace to come from above from God, into us, and then flow through us to others. We are conduits of God’s love because His peace is a cord of three strands: vertical, internal, and then external.

 

Paul practically teaches us about how to walk in this peace. Mental health comes from this internal peace of God, by which we learn to live in God’s grace, from upon high and inside!

 

Let’s pull out some practical practices from Philippians 4:6-9:
 

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

 

Learning how to walk in the promise of peace as daily mental health practices is a key spiritual discipline to our living out the Greatest Commandments. We represent Jesus best (external peace to others!) when we are both holy (vertical peace with God!) and whole (internal peace!).

 

We need to realize that the Bible teaches us good mental hygiene practices that are just as fundamental to our well-being as the many good dental hygiene habits that are ingrained in our daily lives. As this becomes more normalized and less stigmatized in the church, then mental health practices and check-ups will be as common as dental health practices and check-ups.

 

Peace with God that guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus means that the promise of peace is not just a vertical and internal reality, it is our greatest witness as it brings external peace between us and other people. Listen to Paul explain this in Ephesians 2:13-16:

 

But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.

 

This is the Church’s mission! Experiencing the peace of God in both our holiness and wholeness allows us to give God’s love and grace towards others because we have received and internalized it in our own lives. By the Spirit we are to build bridges with people to unite them in Christ alone—our peace!

 

This is the gospel work of the church—to be ministers of reconciliation. As Jesus declared in Matthew 5:9,
 
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”

 

Allow me to pray the promise of peace over you, for you, and through you, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
 
Note:  The audio of the following recordings was done live at the Memorial Park Shelter House.  The quality reflects that atmosphere.

 

You can listen to the message here:

 

You can watch the message by clicking HERE.

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