Fruitful Peace
Fruit Bearing • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Over the last several weeks we have been examining God’s word on what it means to be “Fruit Bearing” for God.
It is certainly a requirement, as Jesus stated.
John 15:1–2 (ESV)
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
Two weeks ago we started looking “bearing the fruit of the Spirit” from Galatians 5:22.
We examined the necessity of bearing “love” and “joy” in our lives and today we see the next we must bear when we produce the fruit of the Spirit…peace.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
When it comes to peace or the lack thereof we find “anxiety and depression” a rising reality for many of our fellow Americans and really the world over.
According to the Anxiety & Depression Association of America or ADAA the numbers of those suffering from these two mental weights are staggering. 1
Those diagnosed with “Generalized Anxiety Disorders” make up 6.8 million adults.
Those diagnosed with “Panic Disorder” make up 6 million adults.
Those diagnosed with “Social Anxiety Disorder” make up 15 million adults.
Those diagnosed with debilitating “Specific Phobias” make up 19.3 million adults.
It doesn’t take much to notice the rising trend of anxiety and depression in the United States.
The reality is “most” of the anxiety and subsequent depression” people feel and experience could be alleviated if they would “give themselves completely and wholly to their Creator.”
That isn’t to suggest that there are not “some” that need medical help due to some genetic mutation or psychological trauma.
So the question is what does the bible have to say about how people can have peace instead of anxiety in their lives?
This isn’t a topic that is without consideration from God either.
The word peace is found 375 times and we find the word anxiety some 8 times in the ESV.
The bible does not shy away from either reality and it makes clear what God desires for us.
We can either be “weighed down” by anxiety or we have be lifted up from it’s weight by God.
25 Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
With that in mind let’s get in to the meat of our lesson by first looking at…
Peace With God
Peace With God
No God No Peace.
No God No Peace.
There is no peace in the life a human if God is not in their lives due to sin.
God has “put eternity into our hearts” from the very beginning.
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
This means that there is a vital part missing from someone if they do not have God, who is the only one eternal, in their lives.
When we sin outside of Christ it automatically brings spiritual death to our soul.
Romans 6:23 (ESV)
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
When we are spiritually dead we are separated from God so that he will not listen to our pleas.
Isaiah 59:1–2 (ESV)
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
Why, because we have allowed that sin to sear our conscience with the lies of sin rather than the truth of God’s love for us.
1 Timothy 4:1–2 (ESV)
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared
However, if that same one seeks to fill that whole in their heart that is missing their eternal God with God, that changes everything.
Why because even though the saying is true “no God no peace” there is another saying just as true…
Know God Know Peace.
Know God Know Peace.
Sinners who get to know God and listen to God will find peace in their lives.
The life of sin brings pain, chaos, anxiety, and depression but the life of Christ…
Draws us closer to God the more we remove the sin from our lives.
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
This is the beautify of Christianity, we are given rest from those things that cause anxiety in our lives, “if we let God work in our lives.”
Matthew 11:28–30 (ESV)
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Summary
Summary
There is no peace outside of Christ Jesus, because peace is only found in Christ.
People can search for peace in their money, jobs, children, spouse, non-biblically trained therapist, or any other earthly thing but in reality the only way to be “set free” from anxiety fully and completely is in Christ.
So the one that goes from living apart from God in sin to finding God, finds the…
The Peace Of God
The Peace Of God
A Life Free From Anxiety.
A Life Free From Anxiety.
Throughout the scriptures the “God of peace” is continually telling his creation, whom he knows best, to seek “the peace of God” which is a life free from anxiety found of only in him.
It is Christians who are told over and over not to be anxious about our physical needs because being anxious about these things cannot add a single hour to our lives.
25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
Matthew 6:25 (ESV)
25 Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
“Now wait a minute Landon, everyone has anxiety about things at least sometimes. Even the most optimistic and faithful child of God is going to get anxiety from time to time.”
Certainly this is true without a doubt.
Paul says that things in this life are going to naturally bring certain anxieties into our life like marriage.
32 I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.
Paul found himself with anxiety over certain congregations within the Lord’s church.
28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
The question isn’t whether or not Christians will have anxiety the question is simply how quickly can Christians get “the peace of God” back into our lives.
The answer, as soon as they pray and give that anxiety over to God.
Philippians 4:4–7 (ESV)
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
When we humble ourselves and realize we cannot achieve peace on our own and go to him who cares for us that we can remove that anxiety.
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
Summary
Summary
When a persons obeys God’s plan of Salvation and gives there life over to him who is worthy of all our trust they will find “the peace of God.”
Because every single time they find themselves being anxious they will go to their God, cast those anxieties upon him who can easily bear them, and find peace again.
And the reason peace with God produces the peace of God in our lives is because of…
The God Of Peace
The God Of Peace
He Is With The Peaceful.
He Is With The Peaceful.
Five different times in the New Testament we find this said of our God and each time it explains how the God of peace brings the peace of God into our lives producing peace in us.
The God of peace produces the peace of God in our lives by “being present in his children’s lives.”
33 May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
The God of peace produces the peace of God in our lives because he has crushed Satan, the source of anxiety, by delivering grace to us.
20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
The God of peace produces the peace of God in our lives because of the eternal covenant he made with us through his Son’s blood.
Hebrews 13:20 (ESV)
20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant
23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Summary
Summary
As the great hymn we often sing teaches us, “Trust and obey, for there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
It is only the God of peace who can give us the “peace of God” that surpasses all understanding perfectly.
Isaiah 26:3 (ESV)
3 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
When we learn to pray without ceasing concerning our anxieties (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and have a love for God’s word (Psalm 119:165) based on our full trust in God (Isaiah 26:3) we can live a life of peace on this earth because we “know we have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).
Why, because our God is an everlasting rock of trust.
4 Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
Endnotes
Endnotes
ADAA - https://adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/facts-statistics
