The Source of Peace

Peace with self, peace with God – bringing calm to the inner voices .

This series looks at abiding in Christ and his purposes for us even in the midst of the noise of life and the inner doubts.

One of the biggest issues we face today is a lack of peace.

I am not talking so much about war and conflict between nations and people groups.

I am talking about inner peace.

The idea, the knowledge, the sense that actually things are OK.

Everybody is stressed, all the time.

The world never stops and we seem to be caught up in everything.

And particularly at this time peace seems especially ellusive.

Now please understand.

This series isn’t a case of Stephen telling you what you need to do.

This series is Stephen telling himself what he needs to do and hoping that in telling these stories we all benefit.

Because I am aware that most of us are under enormous pressure and some of us deal with it well and some of us don’t.

Now most of you know that I struggle with anxiety and depression.

I have wrestled with this since childhood.

Genetic, almost certainly.

Made worse by childhood environment, definately.

Being to proud or stubborn at times to stop and take a break and do the things that we are all told are good for us.

Guilty.

Thinking that if I don’t do it, my way, the right way then it won’t work.

Yes that one too.

So many of our population wrestle with these things and more.

Only a handful of you right now will be saying.

I don’t know what you are talking about Stephen.

Life is good.

I am fine.

Isn’t it incredible, that we live in one of the richest and safest places on earth.

The mongel hordes are not coming over the hill.

The Viking longships haven’t just come up the Bremer river to raid us.

The Black Death isn’t in the next village and even if it was we can treat it now days.

There is no volcano about to spew clouds of superheated ash over the town.

We don’t get really big earthquakes.

And our governments are a long way from locking us up for our beliefs.

And if we don’t like them we can vote them out at the next election.

Yet nearly everyone is stressed out of their mind.

And when we look around the world we see many who have far less but are way happier.

Why, what are we missing?

The Gift the World Cannot Give

The answer isn’t in possessions.

In fact studies show that once you reach a certain level of income, more dosen’t make things better, it actually makes you less happy.

And that income level is actually not that high.

Some of our congregation actually earn those amounts.

The answer isn’t in experience.

You can try every adrenaline experience there is.

It will get the heart pumping.

But it will not make you happy.

Try enough adrenaline type experiences and sooner or later you will end up very unhappy.

Parachutes not opening, sharkes deciding that you make a nice meal or a high speed crash into a solid object are all sure ways to wreak your day.

You can chase the endless summer.

Put your feet up on a nice tropical Island in a hammock.

But watch out for those coconuts and cyclones.

The world can only give subsititutes, which are nice, but don’t solve the real issue.

We were made for relationship with God.

Jesus said, John 14:25-29

John 14:25–29 NLT

I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father, who is greater than I am. I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do happen, you will believe.

The peace I give is a gift the world cannot give.

This is the key point of the whole series.

And we are going to explore it from many different angles.

Lessons from the lives of those who really wrestled with God over something.

Lessons from the lives of those who absolutely blew it in the worst possible way.

Lessons from the lives of those who suffered.

Throughout my entire ministry I keep getting drawn back to this point, everything comes down to relationship with Christ, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Strategy counts for the sake of the growth of the Kingdom.

Technique counts so that you communicate in a language people can relate to.

Governance systems counts so that things are efficient and done properly and safely.

Technology counts so that you can keep track and communicate’.

But all of that is empty unless it is build on the foundation of relationship with Christ and each other.

Perhaps I am a slow learner but every time I look around and ask my self the question, “why is this so hard Lord?”

I am reminded of two things.

Firstly I am not alone, everyone has difficult times, some worse than you and I. We just don’t get to see them because the social media algorithim is focussed on deciving you into thinking everyone else has it better than you.

It’s true isn’t it?

If I based my assessment of how other pastors are doing in ministry and their family life simply by what I see on facebook.

I would think that everyone is a superstar going on endless holidays to the most beautiful places in the world with their perfect family of a wife and 3 or 4 young adults kids who are all doing well, getting married and having picture perfect babies.

The reality is far different.

Many have tough ministries, many have significant illness in the family.

Some have children who are not doing well.

Some have grandkids that have died or are facing lifelong illness.

But let’not let the facts get in the way of the social media perception that drags you down and yet makes you addicted at the same time.

The second thing I am reminded of is that true peace only comes when everything is surrendered to Christ.

I have in my library numerous books on the Christian Spiritual Life.

Some in hard copy, many others digital.

A number of those books are considered amongst the classical definative works on what it means to walk with Christ.

These are incredibly challenging books.

Almost always they talk of great struggle.

They always talk of great discipline in setting aside time to be in God’s presence.

And they always talk of it taking time.

Time to come to that place of surrender.

Time to let that still small voice of the Holy Spirit speak into your heart.

Time to accept that God’s plans for you are going to be different than your plans.

Time to come back again and again to the same issue, the same barrier, the same thing that you have to genuinely leave in God’s hands and trust that he will take care of it.

There are no shortcuts when it comes to peace with God and peace with self.

We can have a radical encounter with the Holy Spirit, but that fades away if we don’t walk the journey of discipleship in the days, weeks , months and years that follow.

Real peace with God means the daily presence of the Holy Spirit, not just the mountain top.

Real peace with God is a journey of daily surrender.

The radical encounter may be a trigger to that journey.

It may be a regular occurance.

It may be the occassional special moment, at a cross road in the journey.

It may be the quiet absolute peace that comes to the quiet faithful disciple.

But let’s not grieve the Spirit of God by chasing the experience as a substitute for ongoing surrender.

I grew up in that sort of environment, it produces a shallow faith.

A faith that does not last and causes the person to suffer by carrying a lot of spiritual baggage.

Receiving the Gift the World Cannot Give

Starts with a simple truth.

God the Father sends the Holy Spirit to be our advocate.

To teach us and to remind us of everything that Christ commands.

The Holy Spirit is given for a purpose.

His purpose is not so that you can live in pleasure.

His purpose is so that you can live in relationship with Christ and serve him.

Living for his mission.

The cause of the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.

The hammock on the tropical island without a care in the world is a nice holiday.

It is not reality.

Just ask a Pacific Islander what things are really like.

And what they really value.

Most will tell you it is about relationship with God and family and that lying in the hammock is a reward for working hard and setting up your family for success, it is not a right.

And if you spend too much time lying in the hammock you will have a lot of stress instead of peace.

If we want the peace of Christ we need to receive it as peace for a purpose.

In the Old Testament false prophets proclaimed peace when there was no peace.

We see that in Jeremiah 6:13-14.

In New Testament times there was the Pax Romana, the Roman peace.

This was a peace that was won and maintained by force.

When people say, “Peace be with you” it is an expression of hope and good will.

Nice to have, but not exactly what Jesus was talking about.

The peace Jesus offers to his disciples is something deeper.

It is peace with a purpose.

It is peace in the midst of trials and persecutions.

A peace that is based on the surity of Christ.

He is coming again to judge the living and the dead.

Whatever happens whilst we wait, the peace that comes from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is a peace which enables us to witness to him.

Because our future is secure.

Whatever happens, we are with Christ.

As the Apostle Paul said in

Philippians 1:21 NIV84

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Receiving the Gift the World Cannot Give

Means we do not need to be troubled or afraid.

When Jesus said these words in John 14:27 things were getting really concerning for the disciples.

The disciples had been arguing about who would get what position in Jesus’ kingdom.

And that had not gone down well with Jesus.

He has told Peter he would deny him.

He had washed their feet and that had made them uncomfortable.

Jesus had been speaking of being betrayed.

He was speaking of going away.

He had initiated what we now call Communion, the Lord’s supper as part of their celebration of the passover meal.

The disciples sensed that everything was coming to a conclusion.

They were expectant that Jesus would be the Messiah that somehow he would reveal his glory and everything would work out fine.

But doubt was creeping in.

The leaders were hostile.

A lot of what Jesus was saying wasn’t adding up for them.

It was as if he was expecting to loose when he should have been expecting to win.

And then he says, “I am leaving you a gift - peace of mind and heart” as the NLT puts it or “peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” as the NIV puts it.

Why was Jesus saying he would leave them peace when he was going to rule and there would be peace?

Why was he saying that, they should not be troubled or afraid.

The peace that comes from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is for a purpose.

Relationship with Christ and his service.

But, that relationship and service will come at a cost.

We are told that the peace that comes from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit comes because living for Christ will bring opposition.

Spiritual opposition to your relationship with Christ.

Spiritual opposition that is evident as rejection.

Spiritual opposition that is evident as strife.

Spiritual opposition that may even be evident as open hostility.

Do not be troubled or afraid.

The peace of God from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit means that he will remind you of the words and actions of Jesus.

We see this throughout the New Testament and throughout church history.

The testimony that God gave me the right words, the right attitude, the right actions in that incredibly difficult situation.

Do not be troubled or afraid, God is with you through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Philippians 1:21 NIV84

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Peace with self, peace with God – bringing calm to the inner voices.

Starts with this attitude.

The source and purpose of our peace is relationship with Christ.

We live for him, we die for him.