Unwrapped Peace
Unwrapped • Sermon • Submitted
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· 6 viewsWhen times of Stress and anxiety come, God is our peace.
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Have you ever been stressed out?
Have you ever been stressed out?
Wow sometimes life can be really crazy.
This time of year although its a blessing and a joy, it is also filled with a whole lot of crazy.
Clean the house, make food, build a fire, shopping, family outings, work, end of year deadlines. Everything is crazy.
Whenever life is busy, it is crazy, and stressful.
I never used to get stressed, and really I still account myself as a pretty low stress person. But as the pace of life picks up. So does the stress.
One of the most stress I ever remember being was when Courtnie my wife was around 9 months pregnant.
We were living in a small little 800 sq. ft, house in South Carolina. It was small but it was enough for us. It was June, friends where having babies. Friends where really pregnant.
We were nesting. Get the house ready, Build the crib, set up the car seat, get the stroller ready. Do we have toys, blankets? Are we ready?
As new parents we were lost. So much to happen and you really just have no idea. We read books, we went to classes. We though we knew everything. Or at least I did.
But then, one day after work Courtnie came home, and we were talking, and she felt like something was happening. Her water may have broken but she wasn’t sure. So we got the bags, and headed for the hospital. Funny thing was, we were pretty calm. When I think about it we should have been in panic mode.
But We had read books, watched videos, videos that no one should ever watch. We read magazines, we even went to classes, we were ready so now it was time to let God take over. so we went to the hospital and on the way stopped at Walmart to buy a video camera cause we had no way to record what was happening. we casually walked around Walmart and finally made our way to the hospital.
They did some tests, asked some questions and decided it was time to start things moving.
After several hours of contractions, our sweet girls heart was not getting a rest so they decided it was time for a c-section.
I remember a friend telling me his wife had one, I was like whats the big deal they do them all the time. Its like pulling teeth, what could go wrong. But when they started prepping for surgery. The gowns the rush, you could tell the Doctors and nurses where worried. I started to get scared. At one moment they rolled Courtnie and my baby away from me. that moment was one of the scariest most stressful moments of my life.
What if something happened, what if things didn’t go well? What if there where complications. In one full swoop I could loose everything, My Baby who I had never met, my wife, who I love. This could either be a great day, or the worst day of my life. I was stressed. I was Scared.
I was worried. I was overwhelmed.
I needed peace.
It is hard to trust its hard to know when your biggest things are left to someone else’s control.
Its hard to trust people when big things are on the line.
I needed peace and it didn’t matter how many thousand c-sections the Doctor had done.
I hard a hard time finding peace in him.
Peace rarely comes from humanity.
What is Peace?
What is Peace?
shalom (shah-lohm´), Hebrew spelling of the general Semitic term for “peace, wholeness, well-being.” It describes the ideal human state, both individual and communal, the ultimate gift from God. It came to be used as a personal salutation, both for greeting and departing.
Wholeness and well-being - The Ideal human state.
To me, peace is when you have that feeling, when everything is just right.
That wake up in the morning after a restful sleep, sipping on your hot tea, or other drink, moment when you just know everything is ok and its good to be alive.
But peace is also more.
PEACE (שָׁלוֹם, shalom; εἰρήνη, eirēnē). A pervasive concept in the Bible that most commonly relates to a relationship of love and loyalty with God and one another.
Peace. Total well-being, prosperity, and security associated with God’s presence among his people. Linked in the OT with the covenant, the presence of peace, as God’s gift, was conditional upon Israel’s obedience. In prophetic material, true peace is part of the end-time hope of God’s salvation
Peace comes when we are connected with God in a loving and loyal relationship. wow.
Harper Dictionary described it as - the ultimate gift from God.
In the book of Judges, Gideon is asked to fight the Philistines, he is asked to go up against a great and formidable fo. God says Gideon, find some loyal men, and we are going to fight the 135,000 enemy’s that want to destroy you. Gideon was stressed. He asked God for three tests.
When Gideon up against great odds, finally trusted God he build an alter.
Then the Lord said to him, “Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.”
So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it The-Lord-Is-Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
The New King James Version Chapter 6
Then the LORD said to him, “Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.” So Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it The-LORD-Is-Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
Then she sent and called for Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “Has not the Lord God of Israel commanded, ‘Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor; take with you ten thousand men of the sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun;
Judges
Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey.
Yahweh-Shalom - The Lord is Peace.
Did you get that? In Gideons world things are bad, war is coming, Stress is upon Gideon, and when he sees that God is calling him, and that this is God’s plan. He is at Peace.
Peace rarely comes from humanity.
Peace comes from trusting God.
The Ideal Human state comes from God.
We are to be formed after God, made in His image.
,
Matthew
Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.
What is a Peacemaker?
What is a Peacemaker?
Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary Peacemakers
Those who actively work to bring about peace and reconciliation where there is hatred and enmity.
New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 2
14 For He Himself is aour peace
You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
The Baby is coming
The Baby is coming
We where rushed off to Surgery, They took my wife my baby, my life and my future away to prep them.
Stress overwhelmed me. Stress, fear.
I looked at Courtnie laying there in the Hospital bed. A Drape in-front of her.
Fear, all over her face. I am sure she saw it one mine. We talked, we kissed, we prayed.
And there among the chaos, the fear, the weight of the world, The stress was lifted. As we prayed I realized that I needed to trust in God.
They took out our baby. Who I never had held, never felt, never had seen. And love, and peace filled every peace of my body. There was an inexpressible love that immediately filled me. It was unreal.
And there among the chaos. God provided one of the greatest gifts of my life. And peace that passes understanding. Perfect peace.
Ella was born on a Sabbath morning. And although our chaos was just beginning there was peace in love, supplied by God.
And there is was, love at first sight.
This is what happens every time a child is born. God looks down at his child with Love.
This reminds me of another time of stress.
In a little town.
In a little town.
Joseph and Mary. Their world about to be in chaos.
The government says register. This meant packing up a 9month pregnant woman and journeying from Nazareth into Bethlehem.
What if I was to say to you, Hey your 8.5 to 9 months pregnant but I need you to pack up and walk 80 miles.
The average person, can go about 20 miles a day, and that is a long hard day.
Take a pregnant woman, your probably looking at 10-15 miles max, so this trip was like a week of travel.
Ladies can you imagine being told that you have to travel for a week on foot and donkey, while you are super pregnant? Can you imagine the stress?
What would be going through your mind?
Come to a town, there is no where to stay. Stress
Going to a strange place, stress.
Sore, stressed tired.
Humanly impossible.
And I am sure that what the angel said to her camp back to her mind. She may have even had to repeat it a few times.
For with God nothing will be impossible.”
They are sent to a barn.
A barn, you can’t have a baby in a barn. Dirty filthy barn.
Lets go to the Story,
Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,
to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.
So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.
And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.
Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.
For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
Peace. toward men.
With man, and our ways, there is stress. But with God there is peace.