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Why Do We as Believers Sometimes Lack God’s Perfect Peace in Our Daily Lives?

Ephesians 6:15

The God of Peace wants us to follow,

The Prince of Peace, who gave to us,

The Gospel of Peace, so that the fruit of

The Spirit of Peace can bear fruit in our lives so that

The Perfect Peace of God surrounds our lives each day.

That is the preparation of the Gospel of Peace (Eph. 6:15) that we are to wear, firmly tied onto our feet as we walk through life.

A Peace-Protected Walk

Growing up one of the big events in the 1950’s was the big trip to the city dump on Saturdays. Dad would load up the trailer with all the trash, tree branches, and junk we had to get rid of. Off we went through the gate to the town dump.

There as dad pushed off the garbage where the dump director told him, we got to wander around and look for treasures. There were so many things to see at the dump; but the ground was littered with broken glass, twisted pieces of rusted metal, and all that garbage.

Mom always said, “Be careful and make sure your shoes are on tight so you don’t cut your feet”.

Life is like living at the dump.

So much to do.

So make sure your shoes are on tight. We are to ask God to keep us wearing our shoes of peace, so we can walk through each day’s troubles living out His promised peace. God is called the God of Peace five times in our Bibles.

Here is:

What the God of Peace Wants to Do

He Wants to be with us.

Romans 15:33 (NKJV) Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

He Wants to crush Satan.

Romans 16:20 (NKJV) And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

He Wants encourage us. 

Philippians 4:7, 9 (NKJV) and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

He Wants to Sanctify us. 

1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NKJV) Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He Wants to make us complete. 

Hebrews 13:20-21 (NKJV) Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

God’s will for us is that we be peaceful. Anxiety is work of the flesh; and peace is a fruit of the Spirit.

We are called to:

A Daily Walk in God’s Peace

As believers we are radically different from everyone around us who is not a follower of Christ, or at least we should be.

Did you have a week of anxiety, fear, frustration, emptiness, purposelessness, impatience, and restlessness? Or,

Did you have a week of peace, confidence, assurance, hope, boldness, and joyfulness detached from your circumstances?

That is actually the simple question we each need to ask ourselves:

Am I Firmly Planted in the Shoes of Peace?

Ephesians 6:15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

Simply stated being equipped with the “preparation of the Gospel of Peace” is when we live out what God did for us in salvation, on a daily basis.

Here are the foundational truths of salvation:

God becomes our Heavenly Father and our Almighty Protector.

Because we believe that God surrounds us with His Presence, His power, His wisdom, and His peace: we go through life in faith, trusting the goodness of our Almighty Father.

Believers who walk in the Spirit as Paul said we are to do, walk through life clothed in the protective gear God designed just for us.

Jesus Christ Came with the Gospel of Peace:

Luke 1:77-79  To give knowledge of salvation to His people By the remission of their sins, 78 Through the tender mercy of our God, With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; 79 To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.” (NKJV)

Jesus Sent His Disciples Out with His Peace:

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (NKJV)

John 16:33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”. (NKJV)

John 20:19,21, 26  Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.”  21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” (NKJV)

Paul Taught that the Gospel brings Peace

Romans 1:7  o all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (NKJV)

Romans 2:10  but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (NKJV)

Romans 3:17  And the way of peace they have not known.” (NKJV)

Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (NKJV)

Romans 8:6  For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (NKJV)

Romans 10:15  And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!” (NKJV)

Romans 14:17,19  for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 19 Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. (NKJV)

Christ’s Promised Peace Can Rule Our Hearts

Colossians 3:15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. (NKJV)

Why Do Believers Sometimes Lack This Peace?

Each day we are confronted with choices.

Just like you got up this morning and decided whether or not you would get ready and come over here to 855 South Drake.

You are here because you decided to do that and acted upon it.

This building
is here.

The believers gather.

The services are prayerfully planned and practiced.

But you can only get the benefit by deliberately choosing to come and be here.

Each step of our spiritual life is the same.

When God looks down at us He sees three areas that impact our lives.

He wants to transform, control, and fill each of those three areas. Look at 1 Th. 5:23:

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God here says we have three parts. Other Scriptures describe us as having two parts, but Paul here enlarges that to three. This gives us a simple explanation of the battle that goes on each day, and why we need to walk in the Spirit and wear our protective gear.

God Says Our Spiritual Life Is Central to Who We Are

When we are saved we get a new heart and a new spirit. So our old operating system is removed and we are a “new creation”. So the new part of us where God lives is our spirit. It is the new us.

God says that He wants us to keep the new us, constantly full of the His Spirit.

God says that His Spirit transforms our attitudes (emotions) as well as our actions.

The problem is that we have an old enemy called our flesh that is not submitted to God.

Our flesh is resistant to everything God wants and responsive to everything Satan wants.

Right within me is a traitor that needs constant subduing.

That Is the Struggle of The Christian Life

My flesh floats the world’s direction every day it is not crucified with Christ.

Every attitude not crucified with Christ gets flesh-tainted, as does every action.

Now comes the battle.

Most often the battle between our flesh and God’s Spirit is seen in the storm-prone space between the new us, and the old flesh. That storm-prone place is in our our soul, or in our emotions, or in our attitudes.

What does our emotional life look like when God’s Spirit is filling and controlling us?

Here are a couple of lists:

Gal. 5:16-25 (NKJV) I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Col. 3:5-10 (NKJV) Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.

8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,

Col. 3:12-17 (NKJV) Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.  

Spirit

Soul

Body

My New Me, the Temple of God

My Emotions & Attitudes

My Old Me or Flesh

Gal. 5:22ff But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control

Spirit ruling bears Fruit of the Spirit

Gal. 5:16 Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

Col. 3: put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another

My body ruling brings Works of the Flesh

Gal. 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like

Do I Have the Peace of God at work in My Life?

Being a Christian changes everything.

Following Jesus transforms daily life.

As believers we are radically different from everyone around us who is not a follower of Christ. Or at least we should be.

How are you doing at walking through all the events, challenges, disasters, and duties of this past week? Does it appear to those around you that you are a follower of Christ?

Did you have a week of
anxiety, fear, frustration, emptiness, purposelessness, impatience, and restlessness? Or,

Did you have a week of peace, confidence, assurance, hope, boldness, and joyfulness detached from your circumstances?

The choice is completely yours!

Is Jesus your inexhaustible peace? Are you resting in Him right now? Have you thanked Jesus lately for the serenity He has given us in His Peace? Please quietly stand with me and right there, in your own words, thank Him for His peace.

# 500 “Peace, Peace Wonderful Peace”

 

Are You Wearing Jesus As Your Peace

Jesus was promised as the Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6),

Like our Master, we His disciples are also to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.) and proclaimers of peace.

When He sent out the seventy He commissioned them: “Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ And if a man of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him; but if not, it will return to you” (Luke 10:5–6).

Jesus promised His disciples, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you” (John 14:27).

Peace flowed during the ministry of Jesus. There was a sweet cloud of peace that continually blessed those who believed in Him. Among His last words to His disciples were, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace” (John 16:33).

The ministry of the apostles and other preachers of the early church was characterized by “preaching peace through Jesus Christ” (Acts 10:36).

God’s kingdom itself is characterized by “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).

The God of peace (1 Cor. 14:33; Heb. 13:20) calls His people to peace (1 Corinthians 7:15 But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us to peace.).

The ministry of the Holy Spirit is characterized by the giving of “love, joy, peace,” and the other spiritual fruit mentioned in Galatians 5:22–23.

God’s Word teaches us:

The Father is the source of peace,

The Son is the giver of that peace,

The Holy Spirit is the agent of that peace. One of the most beautiful fruits the Holy Spirit gives to those in whom He resides is the fruit of peace (Gal. 5:22).

The God of peace sent the Prince of Peace who sends the Spirit of peace to give the fruit of peace. No wonder the Trinity is called Yahweh Shalom, “The Lord is Peace” (Judg. 6:24).

The Depths of Peace

Some of the earth’s most violent weather occurs on the seas. But the deeper one goes the more serene and tranquil the water becomes. Oceanographers report that the deepest parts of the sea are absolutely still. When those areas are dredged they produce remnants of plant and animal life that have remained undisturbed for thousands of years.

That is a picture of the Christian’s peace. The world around him, including his own circumstances, may be in great turmoil and strife, but in his deepest being he has peace that passes understanding. Those who are in the best of circumstances but without God can never find peace, but those in the worst of circumstances but with God need never lack peace[1].

How Do We Get This Peace?

JUSTIFICATION: A Sinner stands before God as accused and is declared righteous by His imputed righteousness.

REDEMPTION: A Sinner stands before God as a slave and is granted freedom by His ransom.

FORGIVENESS: A Sinner stands before God as a debtor and is forgotten by His payment.

RECONCILIATION: A Sinner stands before God as an enemy and is made a friend by His peace.

ADOPTION: A Sinner stands before God as a stranger and is called a Son by His choice.

Peace is Adoption into God’s family. But where this change of relationship with God—out of hostility into friendship, out of wrath into the fullness of love, out of condemnation into justification—is not set forth, the gospel of peace is not truly set forth either.

The peace of God is first and foremost peace with God; it is the state of affairs in which God, instead of being against us, is for us.  When Jesus came to his disciples in the upper room at evening on his resurrection day, he said, “Peace be with you”; and when he had said that, “he showed unto them his hands and side” (Jn 20:19–20). Why did he do that? Not just to establish his identity, but to remind them of the propitiatory death on the cross whereby he had made peace with his Father for them. Having suffered in their place, as their substitute, to make peace for them, he now came in his risen power to bring that peace to them.

“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29). It is here, in the recognition that, whereas we are by nature at odds with God, and God with us, Jesus has made “peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Col 1:20), that true knowledge of the peace of God begins[2].

Old Testament Promised Peace:

Psalm 119:165  Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. (KJV)

Isaiah 9:6-7  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.  Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. (KJV)

Isaiah 26:3  Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. (KJV)

Isaiah 26:12  LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. (KJV)

Isaiah 30:15 For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not. (KJV)

Isaiah 32:17  And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. (KJV)

Isaiah 48:18  O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea: (KJV)

Isaiah 48:22  There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked. (KJV)

Isaiah 53:5  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (KJV)

Isaiah 57:21  There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. (KJV)

Isaiah 59:8  The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace. (KJV)

Jeremiah 6:16  Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. (KJV)

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. (KJV)

[1] John F. MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1983).

[2]  J. I. Packer, Knowing God—20th Anniversary Edition, (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press) 1993.

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