Peace Before Power

KiDZ Message

SLIDE - KiDZ MESSAGE

Have you ever felt scared because of stuff happening in your life?

Scared at school? Mad at sibling? Left out at recess?

When we are scared we often don’t act our best do we?

We yell, grab, say mean things.

In John 20, the Disciples were scared and hiding, but then something amazing happened

Jesus: “Peace be with you.”

THEN → Joy

Last week I told you about how when we walk in step with the Spirit, God will grow good fruit in our lives.

SLIDE - KEEP IN STEP GOOD FRUIT

That story is exactly what I mean. The disciples were close to Jesus and even though they were scared, Joy is what came out.

Joy is one of the fruits!

Today I want to teach you about the first two fruits. Love & Joy

SLIDE - Fruit of the Spirit

Love = caring about others like God cares about them

It’s when we don’t just think about ourselves, but we care for others

It’s when we help someone who is being hurt, or act kindly to someone who may not have been kind to us because we know God loves them

Joy = glad because Jesus is with me.

It is a sense that things are ok, even when things aren’t going my way

It’s being glad in a way that helps others feel better.

Your heart gets filled with love and joy when you are walking in step with Jesus

How do I stay close to Jesus when I’m scared/mad/lonely?

You pray and ask other Jesus follower to pray with you.

You tell him about your feelings

You ask him what he wants you to do next

You do it.

Pray with the kiddos.

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Main Sermon

Opening

SLIDE – Title

Most of us are trying to fix something right now.

A relationship. An injustice. A habit. A life situation.

When we are in problem-solving mode, we get impatient.

We want clarity now. We want resolution now. Every moment feels like a moment too long for the problem to remain.

So we act.

We send the text while our heart is still racing. We fire off the reply. We jump on the person we think got it wrong. We scroll instead of sitting in the discomfort. We do whatever feels available in the moment.

In short:

We immediately do what we can do. And sometimes the thing we can do is the very thing that makes it worse.

There’s another word for what you can do about a situation.

The word is power.

SLIDE – Power

Power is what you can do about a situation.

We all have some kind of power, some more than others, but we all have it whether we like it or not.

But just because you have power doesn’t mean you are in step with the Spirit.

When you are not secure in Christ, you will try to secure yourself with power.

If you move toward power without the Spirit

You will wound people. You will exhaust yourself. You will avoid healing conversations. You will still lead — but you will lead poorly. You will amplify anxiety instead of calming it. You will justify fear and call it faithfulness.

That’s what’s at stake.

SCRIPTURE – Galatians 5:25

Galatians 5:25 NIV

25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

This whole series is about living In Step with the Holy Spirit.

Living by the Spirit means being empowered by the Spirit of God.

Notice that word again — power.

But the Spirit’s power is not the same as our power.

SLIDE - Our power, the Spirit’s Power

Our power is what we can do. The Spirit’s power is what God can do

The Spirit’s power is the power that created existence with a word.

The power that raised Jesus from the dead.

The power restoring this world.

But believing that Jesus is real or that God exists, or that Christianity is right, is NOT the same as living by the Spirit as we follow Jesus.

You see, in today’s story, Before Jesus gives power —He gives something else first.

He gives peace.

The all powerful one walks into a locked room and says, “Peace be with you”?

I propose to you that the same God who made everything knows that before we can be in step with His power, we must first receive His peace.

SLIDE - Big Idea

I must recieve his peace before I can walk in step with his power

Peace before power - say it with me.

peace before power

Let’s look at this story together.

Scripture Exposition

SCRIPTURE - John 20:19

1. Feeling powerless Is the Starting Point

Resurrection day. Doors locked.

Disciples: Have evidence and are still afraid.

They felt powerless. The news felt too good to be true, and even if it was true, they still felt unsafe.

When we feel powerless, we feel afraid.

If you are scared about the situations in your life, you are in good company.

The church begins in fear and Jesus meets people inside fear.

But a feeling of fear rooted in our own powerlessness is not a good place to live.

If fear is unaddressed it either becomes reactivity or withdrawal.

Fight, flight, or freeze. In this case freeze. The disciples were hiding.

I wonder, what situation in your life do you feel like hiding from because you feel afraid and powerless?

Let’s see what Jesus says to it.

2. Peace Spoken First — Restoration Before Responsibility

SCRIPTURE - John 20:20-21

First words: “Peace, be with you.”

He starts with peace, then he proves it.

Jesus didn’t criticize their fears, he healed them with his own power.

He did not remove their circumstances, He restored their security

The disciples receive peace because the cross is finished and Jesus is alive

Peace is security in Christ grounded in the cross and resurrection

SLIDE - Peace

Peace is security in Christ

Not the absence of fear

Not emotional calm

But knowing I am reconciled to God and secure in the risen Jesus

Jesus knows that scared people use power poorly

When you are not secure in Christ, you will use power to secure yourself

Peace removes the need to secure yourself

But Jesus is also not just here to take away fear

He says “Just as my Father sent me, so I am sending you”

How did the Father Send Christ? Did he send him powerless?

NO! he sent him with power to do the miraculous and the speak the truth, to find God’s lost sheep and bring them home.

To be in Step with the Spirit, is to be people who used to be scared and powerless who are now walking in the power of the Spirit.

And the thing we need to walk in his power is Jesus

Jesus who can simply say “peace, be still” and it will be so.

SLIDE - Big Idea

I must recieve his peace before I can walk in step with his power

Peace before power

Peace before power in my life BECAUSE peace comes from his power, not mine.

3. Breath and mission

SCRIPTURE - John 20:21-23

“He breathed on them.”

Genesis 2. & Ezekiel 37.

This is like God giving life to dead things.

Jesus breathes. They receive.

Because they are now secure in Christ, They no longer need to protect themselves, They are free to participate in His mission

We cannot follow Jesus to this better world without the Spirit of God.

Faith is powerless without the Holy Spirit.

But God’s power is not a gift for us to use. It’s more like a river that we get to travel in. You go much father being carried by a current, than just swimming.

Trying to get peace without power is like trying to breathe without air

This is the person who sees faith as a means of feeling good, but rejects Christ’s mission. They keep looking for something, a feeling, and it’s always just out of reach.

They will just gasp for air and never be full.

Trying to have power without first having peace is like being a toddler with a pistol.

This is the person who sees faith as a way to be right and to have control over others. They want certainty and predictability so bad that they are willing to sacrifice their neighbors on the altar of their beliefs.

You will only cause harm and you will stay afraid.

Instead, Christ says “recieve the Holy Spirit”

Allow God’s own breath to become your breath

Which them makes his mission your mission

SLIDE - Big Idea

I must recieve his peace before I can walk in step with his power

4. Thomas — From Control to Confession (vv.24–31)

SCRIPTURE - John 20:24-31

Thomas absent first encounter and demands tangible proof.

Honest doubt, but still looking to understand what he can control

Jesus returns and starts with Peace again.

Examine the wounds and Believe.

Thomas’ confession: “My Lord and my God.”

Clarify shift:

Not doubt → certainty.

But control → surrender.

Thomas becomes secure in Christ as Lord. That security replaces his need for control

“Blessed are those who have not seen.”

To be in Step with the Spirit is to be following God’s lead in every moment of your life.

It is to recieve Peace where he has spoken peace

It is to walk in power where he has power

SLIDE - the test

The test of a life that is in step with the Spirit is not whether circumstances are under your control

It is whether you are secure in Christ, even when circumstances are not under your control.

That is the change Jesus created in the disciples in that room.

That is the change he is offering to you.

his peace before his power

SLIDE - Questions

Will you allow his power to give you peace?

Will you surrender your own power, to participate in his?

Summary

Invite the band up

Let’s take some time to make this personal

If we skip peace and try to do it by our own power

We create anxiety in our homes.

We fracture trust in our church.

We exhaust ourselves spiritually.

We distort the witness of Christ.

If we receive peace but never walk in power:

We become servants of our emotions and fears

We become consumers instead of apprentices of Jesus

The world never changes and we stay hungry for change, forever being unsatisfied.

Let’s not stay there. Let’s recieve his peace and walk in his power.

Guided Prayer

Identify one situation where you are trying to control your circumstances

A person who you desperately want to change

A diagnosis you desperately want to change

A grief you want to get rid of or move on from

An addiction or habit you can’t seem to break

Respond

Sit with Jesus and tell him about it

Confess control.

Move toward Christ (physically) and let him be in charge. Release the outcome.

Hear his voice. “Peace be with you” Receive peace.

Let that peace remind you that you are secure in Christ

Release the need to secure the outcome yourself

Allow the fear to melt away because you trust Christ with the result.

Return to your seat