True Peace

Good morning. Is there any better way to begin a worship service than with a baptism!!!!!!!! What a joy this morning. Praise God for Kinley and her decision to follow Jesus!

Community Christian it is our job as brothers and sisters in Christ to underpin her

to support her

to teach her

to rebuke her

to edify her

to reproof her

to disciple her

It takes all of us

We will walk along side Micheal and Autumn and the kids as we do life together with their family!

This morning we will continue on with our Bait of satan series with the message True Peace.

I had planned on preaching on pride and how dangerous and deadly it is, we will get to that but God changed things in a very personal real way this week. So here we are

Let’s Pray

Start OBS

The world’s version of peace is simply lack of conflict or war. By definition the USA has peace with China and Russia because we are not actively at war with either of them. However, we are far from a peaceful relationship or situation with them

There is a reason there is such a debate about works in the church. The enemy and the world defines things by works.

Did you get it done?

Was there action or only words?

You can say or think whatever you want as long as you don’t act on it.

Today even if you act on it…do a work…and that action or behavior falls within the driven narrative it is okay.

Jesus says thoughts can be sin

Look at how Jesus redefined adultery.

If a man looks at a woman or a woman looks at a man with lust in their hearts they have committed adultery.

If a man looks at a man or a woman looks at a woman with lust in their hearts they have sinned!

Complete opposite of the world

This world and satan do not want peace

satan came to kill, to steal, and to destroy…that is the opposite of peace

Outside of God it is impossible to find true peace in this world

Businesses, manipulators really, make millions of dollars selling you false peace

Yoga

Meditation

Self-help books

They sell these things, among others, and promise peace but they do not give you peace

all the do is take your money

Many turn to drugs and alcohol and cigarettes to find peace

All they find is addiction and have everything taken from them

Many turn to other vices

Money

Greed

Sex

Porn

Becoming a workaholic

Hobbies

Countless other things

All they find is heartache and loss

Some become so lost and hopeless that they kill themselves

Church....peace is a serious issue .

Thank God

Praise God He is the God of peace

I want to dive into Philippians 4:4-7 this morning

As you are turning

For the key words of that passage we are going to get to the original meaning by looking at the Greek all in an attempt to understand and begin to apply God’s Word to each of our lives this morning.

I pray you find true peace for the first time or

find so much more true peace as a result of God’s Word this morning!

Philippians 4:4-7

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“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, 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 understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

As I said I am first going to list the keywords their Greek words and parts of speech and the definitions of those Greek words in an effort to rightly divide this section of scripture

I am going to quickly go over each one and I have put them in the notes for you to have. If you have not grabbed a notes sheet in the back please do so. If we need to make more copies please let me know

Rejoice comes from chairō a verb meaning to be cheerful, be well, be glad, joy

The Lord comes from kyrios a noun meaning supreme in authority, Master, God

Always comes from pantote an adverb meaning even when, at all times, evermore

Reasonableness comes from epieikēs an adjective meaning mild, gentle, moderation, patient, appropriate

Known comes from ginōskō a verb meaning know absolutely

Anxious comes from merimnaō a verb to be anxious, take thought

Anything comes from mēdeis an adjective meaning not even one, any

Everything comes from pas an adjective meaning all, any, every, the whole

Prayer comes from proseuchē a noun meaning prayer

Supplication comes from deēsis a noun meaning petition, prayer, request

Thanksgiving comes from eucharistia a noun meaning gratitude, active grateful language

Requests comes from aitēma a noun meaning a thing asked for

Peace comes from eirēnē a noun meaning peace, quietness, rest

Surpasses comes from hyperechō a verb meaning to hold oneself above, to excel, superior, better, excellency, higher

Understanding comes from nous a noun meaning mind, intellect, thought, feeling, meaning

Guard comes from phroureō a verb means to be a watcher in advance, to mount guard as a sentinel, to hem in, protect

Hearts comes from kardia a noun meaning thoughts and feelings

Minds comes from noēma a noun meaning perception, intellect, disposition

With all of those in mind let’s read the scripture again but this time with the definitions in place of the words

4 Be cheerful, well, glad and joyful in the supreme authority, Master, God at all times, again I say be cheerful, well, glad and joyful.

5 Let your mildness, gentleness, patience and appropriateness be know absolutely to everyone. The supreme authority, Master, God is at hand.

6 Do not take thought or be anxious about even one thing, but in all, anything, your whole life by prayer and petition, with gratitude and active grateful language let your things asked for be made known to God

7 And the quietness and rest which holds you above, excels, is superior and higher than all your mind, intellect, feelings or thoughts will be a watcher in advance, a mounted guard or sentinel, to protect your thoughts and feelings and your perception, intellect, and disposition in Christ Jesus

I want to walk down through this scripture this morning now that we understand it.

By looking for the definitions of the original Greek words we have an understanding but that is not what God calls for us to have

He doesn’t want you to have head knowledge but heart knowledge

He doesn’t want you to just hear and know

He wants you to do and apply

1. Your Daily Disposition vs 4-5

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Rejoice…be cheerful…well…glad…joyful

All day everyday

Regardless of the situation

Regardless of the circumstance

You don’t rejoice in the circumstance

You rejoice....are cheerful.....well…glad…joyful in the Supreme Authority......Master…God....The Lord Himself

Many of you know by now that Melody has breast cancer.

On a side note.

We have prayed as a family.....Logan and I anointed her head with oil as a family.....at the end of the invitation time we are also going to invite you to do the same as you also are family and we are told in James is any of you sick, call the elders, anoint with oil and pray. That is what we will do after invitation

We have chosen to be cheerful, well, glad and joyful not that she has cancer.

Not that surgery looms followed by who know what

Not that she will experience pain

not that it has been, and will continue to be a constant mental and spiritual battle since we got the phone call.

We don’t rejoice in the situation but we have....do…and will continue to be cheerful, well, glad and joyful in the Lord because He is good

He is just

He is full of mercy

He didn’t spare His one and only Son Jesus to save you and me

That is what we are cheerful about

That is what makes us well

That is what we are glad about

That is what we take joy in

Not only does He say it once but twice

Rejoice

Be cheerful

Be well

Be glad

Be joyful in all things because the supreme authority, Master, God....the Lord is at hand!

As a Christian that MUST be your mindset

It, however, must go beyond that mindset and become your actions

It must become your disposition

Disposition is defined as Inclination; propensity; the temper or frame of mind, as directed to particular objects

Because of God.....your disposition is cheerful

well

glad

joyful

and your reasonableness, the fact that you are mild, gentle, full of moderation, patient and appropriate is known absolutely by everyone

It is who you are!

Why

because the Lord is at hand!

Through Jesus you have direct access to God Himself!

How marvelous is that

How Life changing is that

That is why your mildness, gentleness, moderation, patience, and appropriateness is know absolutely by everyone

As a Christian you are God and Christ’s ambassadors

You are given new life

You are transformed

Christ lives in and through you

He does all the work…you are just the vessel and that fact allows you to be cheerful, well, glad, joyful in all things because regardless of what happens you have Jesus and Jesus is ENOUGH!!!!!

I John 5:13-15

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“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”

This is why you are cheerful

This is why you are well

This is why you are glad

This is why you have joy

The Word of God allows you to KNOW ABSOLUTELY that you have eternal life

Because of that you can have a godly disposition

Because of Jesus!

Because of The Word of God

Through the Word you can know absolutely that you are saved!

Praise God!

2. Don’t Be Anxious vs 6

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I understand that God is going to step on some toes here.

The world says all humans are anxious and that you will always have anxiety.

That is a lie

Anxiety may be present but you do not have to be anxious in fact God just said DO NOT BE ANXIOUS

Notice that verse 6 is a continuation of the thought in 4 and 5.

That means because of all we just discussed

Because the Lord, the supreme authority, Master, God is at hand

Because you have direct access to the throne room through Jesus

Because you are to rejoice, be cheerful, be well, be glad, be joyful in all situations and circumstances

Because of that you are not to be anxious about anything

II Corinthians 5:16-17

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“From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

We have looked at verse 17 many times here at CCC and will look at it many more

I hope you all have this underlined and highlighted in your Bibles

We love vs 17....the guilt and shame of past sins are gone

You are no longer who you were before Christ

FREEDOM!

Vs 16 however, is, in my opinion, even more important and allows vs 17 to be powerful

From now on....once you are saved....you regard no one according to the flesh

As a Christian your top priority is spiritual

You must stop evaluating

people

and situations

and circumstances from a physical, worldly perspective

Now as a Christian you evaluate everyone and everything from a spiritual perspective

It goes even deeper

Even Christ....you used to have a failed human perspective of Christ.

You used to assess Christ through human feelings and thinking

Since you have accepted Christ you are now a spiritual being and through the Holy Spirit can now see who Christ really is

You have an intimate

spiritual assessment of Christ Jesus and because of that you are not anxious

Christians

Brothers and sisters in Christ you can be completely anxiety free in Christ!

The anxiety won’t go anywhere but because you assess everyone and everything from a spiritual perspective you realize you no longer have to be anxious about it.....

Christ is bigger than the anxiety and you belong to Christ so it has NO POWER OVER YOU

STOP GIVING IT POWER

Maybe this morning you are thinking

Man I would love to be anxiety free

I would love to see only spiritually

I want that to be my true perspective, my disposition but I have no idea how

Perfect....you are exactly where you need to be

Maybe your anxiety is better but not gone and you want to rid yourself of what is left but you don’t know how

Perfect

Perfect because God laid that on your heart and wants to mature you and grow you in Christ to know, understand, and apply this to YOUR life!

The next section of scripture is just for you!

Prayer and Supplication vs 6

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Do you realize what an honor and privilege prayer truly is?

God

The creator

wants you the created to talk with Him

Have deep

meaningful conversations together

Develop an intimate,

all consuming relationship with each other through prayer

You want anxiety out of your life?

Then Bathe everything in prayer

Take your requests and supplications to God

John 14:12-14

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““Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

Jesus here tells you to pray!

You know God hears your heart felt,

your Word of God matching prayers

Jesus isn’t talking about this

God I really don’t want to drink anymore. Please take this desire to drink from me. If you will take this away I will be all in. I will attend church and bible study every week. I will help in ministries if I am not too busy. Amen

No this is taking your petitions and requests to God

Father. I have sinned against you. I have sinned against my family. I have put alcohol before you. Remove this idol. Forgive me of my sin. Father I want you. I want you to be my top priority. I want to love and to serve you and you alone.

You are merciful

You are love

Your will be done.

In Jesus name amen!

You pray because your realize who God is

You pray because you realize God loves you

You pray because you realize God longs to meet your needs and desires

You pray because you know God, through Jesus has forgiven all of your sin but He calls you to confess those sins to him

You pray because you want God’s will done here on earth as in Heaven.

Prayer…supplication is heart felt and not driven by want or obligation but love and desire to know God

This leads you to God’s peace

4. Peace beyond all understanding vs 7

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This only comes form God

You and I will never have peace on our own period let alone peace beyond all understanding

Peace…

true peace only comes from the God of peace

We talked earlier about peace

This is not the absence of conflict or war type of peace.

In fact those with God’s peace beyond all understanding will see more conflict in their lives not less

No this is a quietness among the chaos

A quietness in the midst of the deafening noise of the world

Rest

True rest

Not a good nights sleep rest

Not a temporary rest

But an all encompassing true rest

It is the rest you get when you truly realize Jesus is enough

You realize you don’t need anything from this world

You realize this world, even though it may touch you physically,

it may attack you physically and emotionally

It may even kill you physically

but you KNOW ABSOLUTELY it can’t touch you spiritually

One thing that feeds

that drives

that causes so much anxiety is that as Christians we hang on to this physical life

Philippians 1:21-24

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“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.”

Paul is not saying you should start cliff diving or driving 100 miles an hour on the wrong side of the freeway

No he isn’t saying you should live dangerously because Heaven is your home and to die is gain

No he is saying that since heaven is home

Since to die is truly gain because when your eyes close here for the final time you will open them in the presence of Jesus.

That is so much better than here on earth

BUT as long as God has you on earth you have fruitful labor to carry out

You have a God ordained and planned job to do

You have people to reach for Jesus

You have people to help disciple

You are to be discipled by Jesus and others

You are here for a reason and a purpose

When that is done God will call you home

That drives all anxiety about death away and allows you to not fear death

allows you to let go of this physical life

allows you to place this physical life in God’s hands

That gives you peace

Peace beyond all understanding

That allows you to rest because you are no longer fighting to hang on to the temporary but are secure and safe in the eternal!

Quietness and rest come from God

Those who know God have a quietness and rest that makes no humans sense

Why

Because it is of God not the world

I have God’s peace in spite of Melody’s cancer

I don’t know the steps ahead but He does

He knows my physical fears

He knows My physical weaknesses

He knows I don’t want this path

but I know He knows the steps because He has walked it already and is walking it with me

He knows that this breaks my heart

He knows that I desire for this to be removed

He knows I don’t want to watch Melody suffer

He knows I don’t want to watch Melody in pain

He knows I don’t want to see my bride facing something that I can do nothing about

I can’t protect her

I can’t fix her

I can’t help her be better

He knows I don’t want that

He knows I hate that

I prayed for God to remove this cup right after we found out that Melody had to have a biopsy

I prayed for her to be healed

I prayed that the biopsy would come back clean

That the doctors would be confused because whatever was there God took away

I prayed for God to remove this cup from me and my bride and our family

I prayed this with tears in my eyes and full confidence that God could do it

but I said it then and meant it and I still mean it nevertheless your will be done!

I trust Him

This is His will and I have peace and quietness and rest in the midst of the biggest storm I have ever faced

Not because of me but because of Him

I know His ways are higher that my ways

I know that His thoughts are higher than my thoughts

I know my Father....God almighty.....my dad loves me

He loves Melody

He loves Trenton

He loves Logan

He loves Claire

He loves our families

Because God is love I have quietness and rest

I am quiet in the fact that He has it

I get rest in knowing He is in control

That calms my soul

That quiets the anxiety that screams at me and drives away any anxiousness that creeps into my life

That allows me to be

cheerful,

well,

glad

and joyful

God through Jesus

Through His Holy Spirit

Through His Word protects

Stands guard over my and your hearts and minds

Over my and your emotions and thoughts

God and His Word must be the top priority in my and your life

You must immerse yourself in Him

Missionaries will tell you the best way to learn language and culture is to immerse yourself in it by living in the country

Same here

That is why we wanted to give you RightNow Media

That is why I encourage you to use it daily

We must be discerning, anytime you gather that many resources into one place there will be bad apples if you find a bad apple let me know and I can remove it

RightNow Media has great, Biblical content that will help you be immersed in God’s Word everyday

Being here every Sunday for Sunday School and worship is a chance to be immersed in the Word

Bible studies....Women’s Bible study on Monday nights at 6:30 pm

Men’s Discipleship group Wednesday nights from 7:8:30 pm

or Co-ed adult bible study on Wednesday nights from 7 to 8 pm

or Free in Him on Fridays at noon womens lunch and bible study

All of those are ways to be immersed in the Word of God

CCC loves you

I love you

God loves you

Rejoice in the Lord

Be cheerful

Be well

Be glad

Be joyful in the LORD ALWAYS!!!!!

Let your mildness

Let your gentleness

Let your moderation

Let your patience

Let your appropriateness be known absolutely by everyone

Drive anxiety out of your life through prayer and supplication

Be quiet and truly rest in God

Invitation