Peace: It's A Gift John 14:27 (TPT) Bible

Intro

Hello, God’s Beloved. Welcome to Win At Life’s Word Study, Walk It Down. I’m Pastor Karl R. Bowling.

‌For the past few weeks, we have explored an unrenewed mind and its characteristics along with a renewed mind and the benefits thereof.

‌‌Today I want to move further into the benefits of a renewed mind and talk about the peace of God—It’s a gift.

Turn with me to John 14:27 (TPT) Bible.

“I leave the gift of peace with you—my peace. Not the kind of fragile peace given by the world, but my perfect peace. Don’t yield to fear or be troubled in your hearts—instead, be courageous!

When we talk about peace we also must talk the opposite of peace which is fear. All of us at sometime in our lives has faced fear. Whether it was in our childhood or in our teenage years and yet even into our adulthood, we have at sometime or another faced fear.

Their is an acronym for fear. False Evidence Appearing Real. I mentioned this acronym because if you were to look back over your life you would see this to be true. But I must pause here and put it into perspective.

There is a difference between fear and danger. Fear is a battle in your mind but danger is tangible—it’s real. And yet either one of them can effect and interfere with your peace.

There are two types of peace I want to tap into today. The first one being temporal and earthly. Or better yet, World peace. We’ve heard about world peace for most of our adult lives. We hear it on the news. World governments get together often to talk about World Peace.

They set goals and initiatives to what they believe will achieve a world peace and how to put them into motion.

Even now in our current economy since the New Year we have constantly heard from the news that we are headed for a recession. Can I suggest to you right here that you have a choice. You can buy into the fear of a recession or open the gift of peace from God.

Yes, the recession is real but can I tell you that it too will pass! Can I tell you that as a believer and follower of Christ Jesus you have options. Don’t get me wrong because you may be affected by the lack of things that a recession can produce.

But we serve a God who makes a way out of no way. God’s history concerning recessions are perfect. When Egypt was headed for a recession God had Joseph in place beside Pharoah and God told Joseph what to do for seven years.

I’m talking about God’s Peace. It’s a Gift.

So, world peace is temporal and earthly. It’s fragile; it doesn’t last and depends of circumstances that are man made. This type of peace is based upon when everything lines up, life is good and there are no problems.

Watch this here. This type of peace is measured simply by the absence of difficulties, disturbances and inconveniences in our lives. And all of this is superficial.

That’s the first type of peace.

But then there’s God’s gift of peace. And what I want you to catch up front about God’s peace is that it is a gift.. You don’t have to ask for it. You don’t have to work for it. You certainly can’t pay for it.

But the glory of God’s peace is that it flows from the inside of you during a recession. It flows when you are persecuted. It flows when trouble shows up. It flows when you have been disappointed. God’s peace has the ability to flow even when confusion is all around you. It flows when anxiety is all around you.

God’s gift of peace is that internal peace that holds you together when things around you are falling apart.

And I want you to catch this nugget. Jesus does not want you to be deceived especially when life becomes troubling. He did not promise to remove you from the challenging situations of life. But what He did promise was to give us peace.

The Back Drop.

I find it interesting that Jesus begins this chapter telling his disciples to not let their hearts be trouble and yet arrives at it again in verse 27.

So, he is comforting them through encouragement of what the Father has for them in heaven (many houses) and that He is going away to prepare such a place.

He then explains (verses 7-15) to them the significance and importance of His oneness with the Father.

But what he says in verse 11 seals the deal for them being able to trust who he is;

Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe [Me] because of the [very] works themselves [which you have witnessed].

In other words, Jesus is saying even if you can’t grasp the oneness of me and my Father, for now just believe in me for the very works that I’ve done.

Ahh, and that right there was enough to bring peace to their hearts—the works Jesus did!

He then tells them He will ask the Father to send The Holy Spirit back to them and roll of The Spirit being with them.

Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), to be with you forever—

I don’t know about you but I’m thankful Jesus sent us some help! Are you with me?

In this day and time we assuredly need help from on high!

I love the promise Jesus makes in verse 18-

“I promise that I will never leave you helpless or abandon you as orphans—I will come back to you!

There it is, there it is! We are not alone—The Holy Spirit will remind us, He will encourage us, that no matter what, Jesus is with us—and because of that we can choose to open the gift of peace Jesus has made available for us.

My Time is Out.

But I want to lean into these two nuggets of what gift of peace will do for us.

Two points I want to leave with you;

Point # 1

Perfect Peace.

I love how the Amplified Bible writes it at the end of verse 27-

‌[Let My perfect peace calm you in every circumstance.

Perfect peace means to be whole or complete. Perfect peace is complete peace and is guaranteed when we focus on Jesus.

Isaiah 26:3-4 “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.”

God promises that we can have perfect peace, and even be kept in a place of perfect peace—in your heart: Your mind, your will and emotions.

To be kept in this perfect peace, our mind must be stayed on the Lord. If our mind is stayed on ourselves, or our problems, or the problem people in our lives, or on anything else, we can’t have this perfect peace.

Isaiah wrote: “Because He trusts in You.” This is another way of expressing the idea of keeping our minds stayed on Him. Almost always, you keep your mind stayed on whatever you are trusting. When we trust the Lord, we keep our mind stayed on Him. It all means that the battle for trust in our lives begins in our minds. If we trust the Lord, it will show in our actions, but it will begin in our mind.

Point # 2

Courage.

‌Nelson Mandela said, “I’ve learned that courage is not the absence of fear but the triumph over it.”

‌I love how the Amplified Bible writes it at the end of verse 27-

‌[Let My perfect peace calm you in every circumstance and give you courage.

So, when we maintain our peace through trusting God that peace will also give us the courage to face all circumstances.

Conclusion

God becomes flesh and lives among humanity, not just to have a transaction with people and ultimately die, but to continue to be with them and to send His Spirit to be present with believers.

So God calls His Spirit-indwelled people to something greater, something more significant: they are here as redeeming forces on this earth; their time here is about reclaiming the things He has created.

Believing God has created the entire cosmos and that it is restored in Jesus---the believer’s work here through the Spirit is to say, “This belongs to God,” and to help point out the beauty of creation to everyone. And most of all, to live in it themselves by the power of the Holy Spirit who plants the teachings of the Lord in their hearts.

“I leave the gift of peace with you—my peace. Not the kind of fragile peace given by the world, but my perfect peace. Don’t yield to fear or be troubled in your hearts—instead, be courageous!

I want to thank you for spending your time with me here today at Win At Life Ministry.