The Key to Continuing Peace

The peace that God gives isn’t dependent on how stable the world is. In fact, as we’ve already experienced, we see that the world is unstable. But our heavenly Father assures us that He will uphold us and give us inner contentment—and nothing can take that away. In this message, Dr. Stanley explains the important topic of peace by highlighting Life Principle #12: “Peace with God is the fruit of oneness with God.”

Dear Lord,
Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week..

Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First…….

Is it really possible to have true genuine peace when the circumstances in your life are all fouled up and messed up?
Now, would you like to change this and change that and change the other?
Is it possible to have real true peace when things are so uncertain?
When you feel sometimes such pain in your body or in your emotions, when things seem to just not be able to, you just can’t straighten them out.
How can you have peace in those kind of times?
Well, Jesus was in the upper room with his disciples and um, Peter had just argued with Jesus about washing his feet.
Judas had gone out to betray him.
He was talking to them about the fact that he was gonna leave them and the fact that he was gonna be crucified, none of that made a lot of sense to them.
And then to top all that off, here’s what he said. Let not your heart be troubled.
I’m sure he didn’t say it quite that way.
But I think that would have been the most ridiculous thing Jesus could have said in the midst of all of that.
And you tell me don’t have a trouble heart.
This is one of those verses and you might want to turn to me uh John 14 for a moment.
Um This is one of those verses.
If you don’t understand what was going on, it doesn’t make any sense at all.
And so even in the midst of this very, very difficult time, Jesus makes this statement, let not your heart be troubled.
He said, you believe in God believe also in me. Now, what was he saying? Here’s what he was saying.
Don’t let your heart be troubled any longer because they were already troubled.
I mean, when he said one of you shall betray me.
That was troubling uh Peter arguing with him about washing his feet. That that was troubling.
When he said, I’m going away, that was everything he said to them was very troubling.
And yet he said, let not your heart be troubled.
What he meant was let not your heart be troubled any longer. You believe in God believe also in me.
So we had something he was going to say to them.
And the truth is the 14th, 15th, 16th and the 17th chapters of John are all very encouraging.
Remember he said to them, he said, I’m going away, but I’m not gonna leave you as orphans.
I’m gonna send the Holy Spirit who will be in you with you and upon you forever.
So it was a matter of encouraging them. But when He said, let not your heart be troubled.
That is, don’t let it be trouble any longer because I’m going to show you how you can live through all of this.
All of us have faced those difficulties and times in our life and situations and circumstances that we thought God, where are you?
If you were there? Why, why don’t you hear my prayer? Why don’t, why don’t you provide what I need?
Why don’t you heal my body? Why don’t you change my relationship?
Why don’t you bring him or her back into my life?
We’ve all been there for some time or the other.
And so when we talk about peace, what I want to talk about in this message is, listen, talk about the key to continuing peace, not ups and downs peace today, not so much peace for tomorrow, not ups and downs, but continuing peace.
Does that mean that they’ll ever come a time in your life when everything is finally gonna be leveled out and it’s gonna be perfect peace all the time?
No, it does not mean that.
But here’s what it means that in the most difficult trying times when your circumstances cannot be managed, when you cannot handle them, when you don’t have any idea of what’s gonna happen and where it’s gonna happen.
Can you have a peace that overrides those feelings?
A peace that is so deep, so tranquil, so reassuring that in spite of everything you see and feel and hear around you.
There is a piece that levels it all out deep down inside of you.
There is a security between you and God that gives you a peace that Paul described in this way.
He said, don’t be anxious about all these things, but he said rather by prayer and supplication, make your request known to God.
And here’s what will happen. The peace of God which surpasses all human understanding, will circle you around will garrison you about will guard your hearts and minds.
In Christ Jesus, he talked about a piece that we don’t understand.
He talked about a peace that would guard us from anxiety and worry and fitting and caring.
Now, I think as I look back over my life, as the past in all these years, uh there was a moment in my life when everything in my life was threatened and I would have had 1000 reasons for being afraid, discouraged and you name it.
But when I received this telephone call and I hung up, I had the most overwhelming sense of absolute tranquility, peace and serenity in my life.
And I remember saying, God, you’ve guided me thus far in my life, you guide me through this.
I would normally have thought I would have been greatly disturbed.
So you say, well, why do you think that happened?
Exactly because what I’m gonna talk about today, I know that it works.
I met somebody after the service a few moments ago who’d been through something that was equally probably as difficult.
And he said to me, you know, I know exactly what you mean.
When everybody was telling us to do something different, we obey God.
We did what we believe was the right thing and God gave us this awesome sense of peace through it all.
So when we talk about peace, we’re not talking about something that just comes and goes because you see, that’s the way most people’s peace would be described.
It’s peace today and war tomorrow. That’s the way it is in some families. That’s the way it is.
Oftentimes some place where you work. But what’s the kind of peace that is continuing?
And that’s what I wanna talk about in this message.
I want you to turn to John chapter 14 and there are three verses of scripture.
I want us to read here.
And in this first one we read in the 14th chapter verse one, Jesus said, do not let your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe also in me, then he begins to encourage them.
And so if you move on over all the way to the 27th verse of this 14th chapter, listen to what he says, he says my, he says, peace, I leave with you, my peace I give to you.
Not as the world gives, do I give it to you? Do not let your hearts be troubled any longer.
He would say no, let it be fearful. That is my peace. That’s the same kind.
He says that I have, then if you go to the 16th chapter and look at the last verse of the 16th chapter again, he says to them, 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.
So I want us to understand something very, very important. Here, there is a difference in the Bible.
There is a difference between peace with God and the peace of God.
So I want to explain that because the truth is the first step to having the peace of God in my life on a continuing daily basis is making peace with God.
So you say, what’s that about?
Well, here’s what the scripture says and you may want to follow some of these verses.
Uh If you go back to the 59th chapter of Isaiah for a moment, and uh if you’ll think about what kind of spiritual condition were we in before we trust that Jesus Christ is our savior.
And here’s what he says. He says in the 59th chapter, behold, the Lord’s hand is not short that it cannot save, no, is his ear so dull that it cannot hear but your iniquitous, that is your sins have made a separation between you and your God.
So what he’s saying is simply this, that sin separates us.
We’re talking about our condition before we trust that Christ is our savior.
And if you look in the fifth chapter of um Romans, here’s what you find.
The Bible says that in the ninth verse, much more than now, having been justified by his blood.
We should be saved from the wrath of God through him before you trusted Christ as your personal savior, savior, the wrath of God was about upon you.
And then he says, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God.
So think about this before a person is saved. God says their sins have separated them from God.
Secondly, they’re under the wrath of God. That is the judgment of God.
They live under that and he says they were enemies of God. Somebody says I’m not an enemy of God.
Well, think about this. If you don’t believe Him, you don’t trust Him, you don’t obey Him, then you’re working against them in different ways.
And what you’re saying is you’re saying he’s a liar. He says I’ll meet your need.
You say no, you won’t go meet Him myself my own way.
Well, if, if you die without Christ, you’re gonna, you’re gonna be lost forever. I don’t believe that.
So a person who is living without Christ is an enemy of God doesn’t mean that you fight against him though.
Some do denying that he even exists, but he says we’re enemies and we’re enemies to ourselves.
When we are living in that kind of life, we’re enemies of God.
He says, under the wrath of God separated from God.
And he says one other thing he says, you can’t have any peace, you don’t have any peace.
So I want you to turn back to Isaiah for a moment.
It’s interesting that three times um beginning in this 48th verse and then all over, uh he mentions here the fact that there is no peace apart from our Lord and our relationship to him.
So in the 48th chapter and the 22nd verse, here’s what he says.
He says, there is no peace for the wicked says, the Lord, you say, well, I am not wicked.
Well, how do you define wicked?
You define wicked like murder, adultery, rape, no wickedness is a deliberate willful injection of the Son of God whom God sent into this world for the primary purpose of dying on the cross, shedding his blood and making it possible for us to be saved to reject that is wickedness indeed.
Then he says, for example, in the 59th chapter and the eighth verse of Isaiah, they do not know the way of peace and there is no justice in their tracks.
They’ve made their paths crooked, whoever treads on them does not know peace.
So what I want you to see is this until a person receives Jesus Christ as their personal savior.
You don’t have any peace? Oh, you say? Yes, I do. I do have peace.
Well, let me ask you a question. Uh, what, what’s gonna happen to you when you die? You said?
Well, I don’t know that. Well, you mean you, you’re not concerned about that?
Well, and I, I’m not concerned about that because what I believe is that I believe that somehow everybody’s gonna get there one way or the other.
But you don’t know that. And the truth is because it’s not true.
I can think of a lot of things, it think about your circumstances.
Everybody has circumstances and sometimes they’re very difficult and very painful.
You may go to a party and feel very peaceful and happy.
There is a difference between real genuine peace and happiness.
When a person has peace, there is a joy deep down inside that is when a person has true, genuine peace, the kind of peace that God’s talking about.
What happens is that peace overrides those feelings of frustration, anxiety or anger or whatever may be going on in your life that causes you to lose your peace.
And so when you think about the fact that a person is separated from God and the wrath of God, the enemy of God and has no peace, that’s the condition of people without Christ.
That’s the condition that all of us have been in at some point in our life before we trusted Jesus as their savior.
Now with that in mind. Here’s what happens when a person trust Jesus Christ as their savior.
What takes place? What takes place is we say the war is over no longer fighting against God.
Because remember this, when you’re living without Christ, the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit is continually attempting to convict the person of their sin and convict them.
The Bible says of the righteousness of Christ that is of his adequacy to pay their sin debt in full.
He’s continually working. They ignore it yet they can be very hardened to the work of the Holy Spirit.
Their conscience can become seared. The spirit of God comes into a person’s life to do what to lead them into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
So when you think about that Christ died, for example.
And in Colossians, uh the uh first chapter, listen to what he says in this chapter.
Colossians chapter one, he talks about this whole idea of what our Lord has done for us.
And he says, he says that through him, that is through Jesus, he came to reconcile us to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
That is when Jesus Christ came, he died on the cross made it possible by shedding his blood for our sins to be forgiven.
So here’s a person living in sin. What? And they want peace.
They, they’d like to have this kind of peace.
What do they have to do first thing you have to do is to deal with the sin problem in your life.
You have to deal with the sin problem. You have to deal with the relationship problem.
He says enemies under the wrath separated from God and does not know the way of peace.
Well, think about this. Then what must happen?
I must be willing to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal savior.
I must be willing to deal with this sin issue. The sin issue cannot be ignored.
And even when you trust the Lord Jesus as your savior, you can’t be at peace with God as long as you’re sinning against Him because he made us a certain way.
But what happens here is when you not trust Him as savior for all practical purposes, we give up the war, we surrender to him.
And what happens, we change our position.
We are no longer enemies under his wrath, separated from him and without peace.
And what happens is he says in Romans chapter eight, for example, that we become the Children of God.
And when I think about that, notice what he says in verse 14, for all of us who are being led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God for as you have not received the spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you received the spirit of adoption as sons.
So he says, the spirit of God itself himself testifies to that and that we become John.
As for Christ, that is we are adopted into the family of God.
We’re now a member of the family of God.
So if I’m going to have continuing peace in my life, the kind that overrides those difficulties and hardships and unchangeable, unmanageable circumstances in my life.
Something’s got to happen. And what must happen is I must lay down my warfare and say, Lord, I surrender my life to you, trust Him as your personal savior.
And then all that first disappears and you have a new position. What’s the new position? Now?
You’re a forgiven child of God, walking in his love and dwelt by the Holy Spirit sealed by the Holy Spirit.
He says unto the day of redemption eternally secure in Him available for God to work in our life and to receive the blessings of life.
We have a whole new position.
Now, once we have a whole new position, then what happens, then we can begin to understand and begin to experience what he’s mentioning here, what he said to his disciples.
For example, when he said my peace, I give to you. Not as the world gives, give onto you.
Let not your heart be troubled now. So think about it in this light. Peace. Watch this now.
Peace with God is a one time decision.
You receive Christ as your savior, the war is over, you become a child of God.
One time decision. The peace of God is a continuing decision that you and I make throughout our daily life, we can have it or we can reject it, we can experience it and enjoy it or we can neglect it in some fashion.
But remember, peace with God, the war is over, we became a child of God.
Now the peace of God that passes all understanding as Paul said in that fourth chapter of Philippians here.
What is this piece? Well, you might want to turn to Philippians four for a moment because I’m gonna come back to it in a minute and notice what he says.
He says, uh challenging uh uh his uh listeners.
He said, stop being anxious about all these things, stop being anxious about all these things.
But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God and the peace.
Listen. Now the peace of God will garrison you about protect you in those times.
Paul says in Romans chapter five verse one, he says, therefore, being watch this, therefore being justified by faith.
We have peace with God. That is when you trusted Him as your savior.
Now the war is over, you become a child of God, peace with God, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God.
Then if you want the peace of God, that is a daily issue in all of our lives.
And if I should ask you how many of you can control your circumstances. Not on one of us.
How many of you can manipulate them? Not much. How many of you like to change your circumstances?
Probably most people. Well, how can you live with this continuing peace, this serenity, this inner quietness, this innocence of security and tranquility that overrides no matter what’s going on around us.
How can we experience that where we can? Because it’s the offer of our Lord himself.
Now, I want you to go back to um go back to John for a moment in that 14th chapter.
And let’s look to see what he said.
He said in this 14th chapter and the uh 27th verse, if you’ll notice uh how he distinguishes between the two, he says, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives, give on to you.
He says, let not your heart be troubled any longer. Now, when he said my peace I give to you.
What did he mean? When he said my peace?
Well, he’s certainly talking about a different kind of peace than we’ve had before.
And when he says, listen, not as the world gives. So what is Jesus saying?
He says, there’s a difference between the peace he gives and the peace that the world has to offer.
Wealth doesn’t, doesn’t give you peace and prosperity doesn’t give you peace when you’re seeking peace in the wrong places, the very things you seek to make you peaceful, make you less peaceful, put you in a worse condition than you were before.
Jesus said my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives out. He says that’s not gonna work.
And you and I maybe be, maybe you’re experiencing that kind of thing today or you and I know plenty of people who have no peace whatsoever.
And if you ask them while they’re not peaceful, they could tell you who’s making their life miserable or what’s made their life miserable, what they had and what they lost and all of these things, because all of these are changing situations and circumstances.
And when you, when you think about it, you think about it in this light.
If you can’t, if you can’t manage your circumstances, you can’t control your circumstances.
Well, how would you, in other words, how long will you have this and everybody’s lost enough money to know you may have it today, but you may not have it tomorrow.
The truth is all circumstances like that they can’t be controlled. And here’s Jesus saying, he says, look, trust me.
He says, the peace that I give you is gonna be totally different from all the peace that you’ve had before.
So what is this piece that Jesus offers? Well, first of all, it has to do with him.
He said, my peace. Remember what Jesus said about his relationship to the father?
He said, if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the father I and the father of one.
And so if he and the father won the peace that he’s offering us is Godly peace.
It is a heavenly peace. It is a practical peace. It is a peace.
Listen, that doesn’t come and go with circumstances. It is a peace that be can be continuing.
Jesus said my peace I give to. You don’t allow your heart to be troubled any longer.
It comes from him. So you’re looking and trying to find some peace in your life and you’ve tried this and you’ve tried that.
You’ve tried the other. There’s only one place to find and that’s Jesus.
You, I don’t even believe in him and you’ll never have peace.
You say, well, I’ve tried that. No, no.
Listen, once you understand what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and you understand that you’ll discover that you can have a peace that overrides anything and everything that you have to face in life.
You so that doesn’t even sound reasonable. It’s not reasonable. That’s what Paul said.
He said he says it surpasses understanding. There is a peace, there is a tranquil.
And you see in the Greek, the word peace means to bind together.
So what happens, Jesus was talking about his relationship to the father, his relationship to the father was one that is what brings us into that relationship is a sense of oneness.
Now, when you think about one that you think about uh two people, for example, who have the same ideas, maybe about things uh who are in agreement.
And I think of all the words that I, that I could use, I would say the word agreement is probably the best one.
And that is when you and Jesus Christ, when, when you and God the Father, when you in the spirit of God, when you are in agreement with Him, there’s gonna be peace.
When you’re in disagreement, there’s not gonna be, which simply says this, you can be a believer and not experience this continuing peace of God.
Why if you’re in disagreement with God about your life when He knows what is best He has the best will for your life, best plan.
And you’re in disagreement about it. You say, what do you mean?
I mean, simply this, here’s what you wanna do.
But you know, in your heart, that’s not what God wants you to do.
And so you, you wrestle you, you’re threatened with God about it. You don’t have any peace.
As long as you’re out of the will of God, you’re not gonna have any peace.
And the truth is the more you know Him and the better, you know Him, the more you know that for you to violate the will of God step out of the will of God, argue with God, become angry with God, try to walk away from Him.
You’re not gonna have any peace. It’s absolutely impossible. He is the source of peace.
That’s what Paul said in, in divisions. Chapter two, he says, Jesus is our peace.
When you trusted Him as your personal savior, he came into your life to dwell in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
You have the peace of God within you and you can, you have the capacity to experience this peace that is absolutely capable of enabling you to over ride the pain, the heartache, the suffering, the misunderstanding, and all the things that you and I deal with life.
So I want you to turn to the 33rd verse of this, of uh 16th chapter again.
Now, now he’s been talking to them, say 14, 15, 16 chapters and encouraging them.
Remember he said to them, I’m not gonna leave you as often.
So these are, these are tremendously encouraging chapters to anybody.
Then he says in the 33rd verse, these things I’ve spoken to you so that listen in me, not in the world that is from me, not from the world in me.
You may have peace in the world tribulation. But he says, take courage, I have overcome the world.
Now, what is he saying? He’s saying simply this, that the key to peace is, is a relationship with Jesus.
Now watch this, watch this carefully. Where do people look for peace in circumstances?
If I could just change this circumstance and change that if I could have this or have that, that’s why they look for peace.
He said no, it’s not in circumstances, it’s in a relationship.
And until a person has a personal relationship by faith, having surrendered himself to Christ and then beginning to live obediently before him.
There’s not gonna be any peace. My peace I give to you.
He says this peace that I’m offering is in me.
It’s in a relationship and that relationship must be a relationship of faith and of obedience and of love toward him.
You can search the world over, you can have all the world’s wealth.
You can travel here and afar, you can do anything and everything you wanna do.
There is one single source of peace.
You say, I don’t even believe in that Jesus that I’m telling you, you’re not gonna have any peace because how are you gonna have it?
The only thing you can do is try to control your circumstances and you can’t control them.
So where are you gonna find peace?
You have to resort to what Jesus said, the world if I had this and had that and had this and had that and him, her and, and all these things, but you can’t control that and you can’t do that.
And even if you do it some temporary, then when you come to die, then what are you gonna do?
There’s one source of peace and listen carefully.
You cannot, you cannot, you cannot, you cannot live in disobedience to the will of God and have peace, period.
It doesn’t make a difference. How much alcohol you drink, how much drugs you have, how much sex you have, how many marriages you have, how much wealth you have.
None of it is gonna give you peace. He’s made it very simple.
And he says, besides the piece I’m gonna give you is gonna be so awesome.
You can’t even understand it. You, you won’t even be able to understand why you can be so tranquil and serene in your heart when everything around you is falling apart.
That’s what Paul said. It’s beyond our understanding, but it is not beyond our experience.
I may not be able to understand it, but I can experience it. So think about this.
He said, I am the father of one.
You’ve seen me, you’ve seen the father, he and the father had perfect wonders with each other.
So let me ask you this question.
What is it in your life that’s keeping you from being one with the Lord Jesus?
Let’s say for example, that you’re saved, you know, you are, the war is over.
You become a child of God. He’s your heavenly father. But but but there’s no peace.
There’s something in your life that’s causing you cheating, you depriving you of having this awesome sense of peace that he offers.
That’s something the spirit of God may have already prompted your mind to think about even as this message began, or it may be that right now.
You’re thinking about it. Well, you know, I God and I are arguing about this and I don’t like this and I want to change that in my life and you’re not at peace.
What are you gonna do about it? There’s some things you can’t change in life.
So you’re gonna go through life miserable because you can’t change them.
There’s some diseases that seems, that doesn’t seem to be any healing for what are you gonna do?
Just say, well, you know, I’m just gonna blame God the rest of my life and, and that’s not gonna do any good.
You cannot live in sin and have peace.
You cannot, you can reason it any way you want to, you cannot have peace and live in sin to the Holy God who loves you enough to die for you, who loves you enough to not only save you but listen to come into your life and the presence and power of the Holy Spirit and do what and provide this peace.
Now, remember what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit for a few moments, remember what he said to his disciples?
He said, I’m going away but I’m gonna send you the comforter, the Holy Spirit who will be in you and with you forever.
Well, why did he send them? Remember what he said to his disciples? He said to them.
Now, look, your commission is to go into all world and preach the gospel, but you’re not ready.
They walk with him for three years and watched all of his miracles.
What do you mean if we’re not ready? You’re not ready. I want you to sit down.
That’s what the word Terry means.
I want you to sit down in the city of Jerusalem and wait until you are endued with power from on high, wait until the Holy Spirit comes upon you and in you and then you’ll be ready to do the work that I’ve called you to do.
Now think about this. When you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, as your personal savior, the Holy Spirit came into your life sent by God.
Listen, for the primary purpose of enabling you and me to experience and to do and to achieve what humanly we never can.
That’s why he came.
He is the omnipotent person of the trinity, even as the son and the father. He is omniscient.
He knows all things. When you trusted him as your savior, he came to dwell within you.
He resides in your life today.
You said I’m not much of a Christian, but if you are a true genuine born again believer, then you are in by the Holy Spirit.
You may be ignoring him. And if you don’t have any peace, more than likely you are now, why did he come?
He came to enable us to become and to achieve what his will is for our life.
And for the kingdom of God. Now, what does the Bible say about Him?
The scripture says that the Spirit of God, listen, the fruit of the spirit. What’s that?
That is, that’s what He produces.
The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, self control, and all the rest, non fruits of the spirit, the fruit.
Listen, he says the fruit of the spirit.
When the spirit of God comes into your life, what is His responsibility? His responsibility?
If you and I listen, if we will be at one with Him, if we will cooperate with Him, he will do what he will enable us to have love and joy and peace and goodness and kindness and serenity and self control.
There was all of these things in the fruit of the spirit that is, it’s what he produces in us as circumstances are not the issue.
Whenever I am at one with Him, he is able to live out through your life and my life.
Everything we want to become. Do you not want to be a person who loves and has joy and peace and the person who’s really good.
There was everything you and I desire to be everything that is essential to being like our savior, the spirit of God produces within us.
So what’s my responsibility? My responsibility is to be at one with him.
Jesus said my peace I give to you.
He says in me, Jesus is in me is where you find that peace, not in the world but in me, this is why it is futile.
It is a waste of time. It is a waste of resources. It’s a waste of a person’s life.
Why live miserable when you can have peace? You said? But you don’t know my circumstance.
It’s not, that’s not the issue.
Could there be any worse than that group of disciples who were there with Jesus Jesus?
And all of a sudden all the things he taught them. I’m the father one.
I could bring down legions of angels. And now you talk about being crucified. You’re talking about leaving us.
None of that made any sense.
But he said my peace will give you the capacity to make sense out of it.
What I want you to see is this, there is peace with God which happens when you trust Him as your savior, the war is over there is the peace of God that only comes when you live surrendered to Him.
Listen, he says I am the father of one.
You know what Jesus wants of, of us, what God wants of us.
He wants us to be at oneness with Him. What does that mean?
It means I want to walk in agreement with Him.
Would you not agree that certainly it’s wise to walk in agreement with Jesus to walk in agreement with the will of God?
Do I know something God doesn’t know? Do I have power that he doesn’t have.
Does he, do I know ways that he does not know, can do I have, do I have strength that that’s, that’s sufficient within myself?
No, I don’t. He says I am the father of one.
He said you can find peace in me that is in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
You can have peace. That is the only place you’re gonna find it. Now.
I know somebody says, well, but you know, I think I can have it without him.
Well, let me ask you a question if I gave you a piece of paper and said, describe your present life to me.
I guarantee you, you bring up some things that you’d like to change. You’re not happy about them.
Now, does this mean that you will reach some stage in your life where there’ll be no more troubles and no more heartaches and everything is gonna go smooth.
No, it doesn’t. Jesus didn’t have that. But here’s what it means.
It doesn’t mean the absence in our circumstances of all things that would trouble us.
But it simply means this because of that intimate relationship because I know who He is and who he is in me and who I am in him.
And because of these awesome promises He’s made because he lives out every promise he’s ever made because of who He is within me.
Because within me, there is the living God in the presence of the spirit of God, no matter what comes our way, no matter how awful the circum stances, no matter how awesome they may be, no matter how often they change, there can be a tranquility, a serenity, a calmness and a quietness that anchors my soul so that I’m not blown by the winds of adversity and heartache, not like the waves of the sea, but absolutely stabilized because Jesus is our peace.
There is no other way.
I’d be happy for somebody to tell me, is there any other way to have peace?
When he said, Paul said he is our peace and he knew that being within us.
He’s the source of our peace every single day. If I understand that. Now, listen.
Do I have any responsibility? Yes, I do.
One of those things I must remember is this, that I must watch this.
I must claim. What is mine? What is mine? What is yours?
You have the spirit of God within you. You have the awesome supernatural power of God within you.
You have the potential for everything God has for your life within you, through the Holy Spirit.
I have to claim it. So I come into a situation that could cause me a lot of turmoil.
I have to claim who I am. I’m a child of God.
What I have the spirit of God within me, who is the source of peace within my life.
And the second thing I must do is to, is to get my focus right?
Whatever you focus on when troubles and trials and heartache come.
He says I’m just set my focus upon him. Why? Because he is your peace.
He’s not just the source of it. He is your piece.
And you said, well, you mean to tell me that if I’m going through pain, I’m gonna focus on him.
Yes. Why? Well, focusing on pain does what just makes it worse when I’m watching this, I’m gonna show you how it works in a moment.
And so what do you do?
You, you trust him to be what he said, he would be and to provide what he said he would, he would provide.
Now if he is my peace, what is he going to do when he sees me hurting and going through some trial, some difficulty.
What is he going to do when I focus upon him?
He is going to remind me of some things you’re my son and I love you.
And remember, I’m only gonna allow those things in your life.
When you respond correctly, it’s gonna turn out for your good.
So I know you’re hurting the, it’s gonna turn out for your, your good.
I know you miss her but it’s gonna turn out for your good.
I know you’ve lost them, but it’s gonna, I’m, I’m gonna show you in other words, listen, when God is reassuring you in the midst of heartache and trial and tribulation in your life when he is there to reassure you that he understands, he’s gonna bring you through this.
You don’t, you have to give in, you don’t have to give up.
You don’t have to throw up your hands. You trust him.
That’s what the whole Christian life is, is about.
And many of us have lived long enough to understand and they’ve gone through enough different kind of troubles and heartaches that what I’m saying to you is absolutely the truth.
The Bible says it is the truth and I want you to understand you do not have to be thrown off.
Course you do not have to throw up your hands.
You do not have to go to alcohol and drugs and sex and immorality and all the rest.
It’s Christ Jesus within you. He says I am your peace in me. He says, you find it.
Then we make a choice, we make a choice to fuss about our circumstances, try to change our circumstances and argue with God about them.
Or we say, all right, Lord, you said you’re my peace.
I’m claiming that my faith right now that in spite of what I’m going through, you’re gonna tranquilize my heart.
You’re gonna give me a serenity and quietness and assurance and comfort in my life.
I’m here to tell you I’ve been a Christian long enough for 65 years. I’ve been a believer.
He keeps his word and I think any pastor can tell you we’ve all been through enough stuff that if you can be tried, tested, tempted, brow beaten, you name it.
There is a peace that absolutely overrides everything the devil can throw at you.
It’s yours for the asking. He said, he said, what must I do?
Just what I said, claim it. In other words, it’s yours. Trust him.
Get your focus on him. He’s the, in other words, he’s the source. Let me ask you a question.
How did you get saved? Well, I did the following things. No, no, no, no, no.
You only did one thing God made this so simple.
You only did one thing you trusted Him to do what he said He would do.
He said, if you would confess your sins, place your trust in Him as your personal savior, he’d save you.
That’s what you did. You didn’t have to raise a hand. You didn’t have to take a step.
You didn’t go anywhere. You didn’t give anything you trusted Him. And what did he do?
He changed your eternal destiny in that moment, he wrote your name in the Lamb’s book of Life.
You’re a child of the living God. And what did you do? You accept it?
You, you, you received what he had to offer.
If he can do that in a one time event?
Can he not do that every day of your life? Yes.
It’s a matter of trusting Him claiming it.
And getting your focus on the source of peace rather than the source of your frustration.
You must not forget this message because I can tell you you already know this.
In fact, you’re sitting there maybe somewhere in your home or wherever it may be and you’re there and you’re so frustrated, your circumstances are totally out of control.
All I want you to do is to at least consider this.
If Jesus said something, don’t you think it’s the truth? Secondly, listen to this.
Many people don’t believe in Jesus. Has anybody ever named one sin? He committed never.
The people who don’t even believe in Him will say, well, I know he was a good man.
How good was he so good? He never made a mistake. So good. He never sinned.
Wait a minute, there must be something different about Him. You know why?
Because He’s the Son of God and that Son of God has chosen to live within your life and my life through the presence of the Holy Spirit.
So if somebody were to ask me, what is the Christian life? Here’s what I would say.
The Christian life is this.
It is the acceptance of Jesus Christ as my personal savior through faith and his work at the cross of shedding his blood, bringing about atonement for my sin and then, and dwelling me with the Holy Spirit.
Who’s responsibility, it is to live out the life of Jesus through me because that’s what he does.
It is what we do. It’s what he does. So what is my responsibility to yield to him?
You see, as long as there’s oneness I can have peace and when I decide that I don’t agree with him about anything, my peace is gone.
Does it get any simpler than that?
I didn’t say it was easy but it’s simple. You want peace.
You gotta have Jesus give up the war fighting against him no longer an enemy no longer under the wrath, no longer separated from him, no longer without peace.
It is yours for the asking. He will not disappoint you.
What do they call Jesus, the prince of peace, the source of these.
He’s the giver of peace.
It’s all about a personal relationship with God through his son, Jesus Christ.
That is the source of continuing peace that works every day in a person’s life.
And father, how grateful we are that your word is so full of awesome truth.
You’ve made it so simple in points.
I pray the Holy Spirit will speak to every single person who hears this message to realize.
I’ve just told them what you said.
I’ve just told them what you claimed about yourself that you and the father one, you’re the source of peace in me.
You said is peace, my peace.
I give to you that each person, whatever their circumstance would recognize that upon acceptance of Christ as Savior, their potential for peace.
Becomes a living reality within their hearts and their willingness to surrender to Him makes it possible to face everything every day with an awesome sense of indescribable peace.
I pray the Holy Spirit will ring this in their ears.
God stir it in their heart and send them enough of whatever is necessary that they would put it to work, put it to practice, claim it for themselves in Jesus name.
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