Peace
Hope Joy Peace Love • Sermon • Submitted
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· 9 viewsPeace in your soul from God The most High.
Notes
Transcript
Seeking it Through God.
Seeking it Through God.
Worship music
Here is peace like a river
Announcements.
It is well
Glorious Day
Do you see peace as something we need to do as an action or something that is of God?
It is both and we will explore this question and many other today as we walk down this journey about peace. We will explore the meaning of peace, where it originated and what makes God a major part of peace.
Akkadian salāmū comes closest to the core meaning ofthe root, “to be hale, whole, complete.”1
. Peace is a positive notion, a notion with its own content1
1 Healey, J. P. (1992). Peace: Old Testament. In D. N. Freedman (Ed.), The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (Vol. 5, p. 206). New York: Doubleday.
This idea of wholeness and completeness comes from the old testament
Peace is contrasted with war but in a political sense is not the absences of war in a purely negative sense but it also includes the idea of friendly relations between two peoples.
Peace is synonymous with Victory
Peace and prosperity can be paired
Peace can be seen as sort of an economic freedom when paired with Prosperity.
There are many places in the old testament where you can find peace associated with many of the previously mentioned ideas like victory prosperity economic freedom. Theologically peace was clear in the book of Genesis 2:2 and Genesis 1:31. The order of the cosmos created harmony and peace. It was in the beginning when sin that took place in the world that helps us see that with sin the worlds true peace becomes disrupted. The harmony of peace becomes untied with the serpent first with Eve, the murder of Abel, the flood. the division of people on earth. The once Perfect world God created is now fractured scattered and disunited without peace. This is where in lies the problem people.
We want peace and are willing to seek it out but it means we must seek for, or search for peace thru all scripture, the living word of God. God is the Author of Peace. He spoke all this Universe in to existence and due to Sin entering into the world we now have a world without peace harmony and justice.
When we take a deeper look at peace it is paralleled with Justice, economics, Harmony and God the Author gives us many opportunities to seek his peace.
Lets examine the difference in a peace maker and a Peace keeper.
Peace makers look to resolve situation when conflict arises.
Peace keepers tend to sweep the conflict under the rug and don’t really deal with the root issue and want the problem to just go away by any means necessary even if it means sacrificing personal integrity. This is not what God calls us to do in any circumstance. God calls us to be holy and there is no way to be both holy and at peace if you sacrifice integrity in order to just keep peace. Imagine the burden you will carry if you make a sacrifice like this.
Examples of Sacrificing your integrity just to keep Peace.
That little lie to keep from hurting someone when in reality its better they know the truth.
carrying something confidential you know about someone and knowing you should probably not be carrying this
or in my case being asked by a family member to tell a little white lie if asked about why my brother and his wife are not at a family gathering and then that family member going into an all out gossip session about my brother and his wife to all the other family members.
NEVER NEVER NEVER agree to let your integrity be undermined by anyone especially your own family. This is a burden I carry yet today. Because of sacrificing my integrity I have an inner conflict going on. As a result of this the relationship is not going to be restored anytime soon. Family conflict is definitely the hardest. The saddest part of this is there is no resolve coming anytime soon. Please don’t feel bad for me. I tell you this story to help you grow not for sympathy for the pastor.
That’s a burden to carry. Where does any peace come from this?
What freedom lies in this if Jesus called us to be free in him? Peace makers strive to continue to build relationship. Peace keepers keep the peace at all cost regardless of the burden they have to carry to do it.
The Kids are fitting and at each other and mom just wants them to stop so she distracts them with one of their favorite foods and this stops the quarrel for a few minutes but there is no resolve of the root that caused the conflict in the first place.
Peace makers continue to resolve conflict to rebuild the relationship and will not sacrifice integrity because they know that in the long run the relationship is most important. True peace makers want restoration to take place in order that the relationship continue in good graces. True peace in the sense our western culture understands it cannot happen without restoration. Peace understanding being that void of War conflict or without
Jesus says in Mathew 5:9 of the beatitudes
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God1
1 The New International Version. (2011). (Mt 5:9). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
See even here Jesus gives calls those peacemakers as blessed
What does this world look like without peace in the sense our western culture understands it? Void of peace. Shalom
Shalom A state of tranquility or wholeness; shalom. Also: “Nonviolence,” “Reconciliation,” “Serenity,” “Shalom,” “Spiritual Peace,” “Tranquility,” and “Truce.”
Peace.
The biblical characters use the term “peace” in friendly greetings and farewell statements to communicate an absence of hostility.
What’s the key Ingredient to Peace?
Seeking Peace like Solomon sought wisdom.
Seeking the prince of Peace God is the only one who can offer true Peace.
Isaiah 9:6 (NIV)
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Paul, the writer of many books of the new Testament referred to “the God of Peace” 6 times in the New Testament.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 and his last was in Philippians 4:9
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Wise men sought jesus out. People still need to seek him out today.
Where are we seeking to find Peace?
Friendships, Worldly things, maybe some companionship of the opposite sex.
What are we seeking to find peace in?
is it the worldly things or is it God and his truth thru scripture.
I have yet to find any one thing in the world that will give any kind of lasting peace. We can find short term peace in many hobbies and even in a special kind of personal relationship. Have you ever found true authentic peace in anything other than Jesus who came to offer the peace to all? He leaves the apostles with peace and gives them peace saying he does not give to them as the world gives. lets read
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.
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.
Had the apostles not searched for or sought out God, who offers the most peace, where would they be void of this offering he is giving them? Who has Peace without Christ regardless of how much they seek it in the world? Jesus tells them don’t let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid because he is foretelling of sending the gift of the holy spirit and with this gift comes the peace of God the Father as Paul refers to many times as I have spoken of previously in my past sermons.
Peace divine in the NT.
God’s ultimate provision for peace is discovered in the work of Jesus Chris. It is only through Christ that peace with God can be achieved because as I have said in last weeks sermon we are enemies of God without Jesus Christ.
Peace in a believers relationship
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Matthew 6:25,26,33
Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
and continuing on in verse
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
How much more valuable are you than the birds of the air? God has a plan for you and in his divine plan peace is what he offers and brings as a result. This peace here in this life is not guaranteed but in heaven it is.
and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
1 The New International Version. (2011). (Col 1:20). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Provision of peace thru the holy Spirit with the shedding of his blood for you and I and our sin can only he bring lasting Peace.
Holy Spirits inner witness
2 Corinthians 1:20–22 (NIV)
20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. 21 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
Pr 12:20
20 Deceit is in the hearts of those who plot evil,
but those who promote peace have joy.1
Pslams4:8
In peace I will lie down and sleep,
for you alone, LORD,
make me dwell in safety
The New International Version Psalm 29
11 The LORD gives strength to his people;
the LORD blesses his people with peace.
The New International Version Psalm 34
Turn from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.
Ro 14:19, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.1
Mt 5:9
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God. 1
Will you be glad to be called a peace maker of the most high God? Lets sing a song about having a victory in the God of peace!!!
Victory In Jesus.