Fruit of the Spirit: Peace

Intro

Hey! If you haven’t been with us recently, we’re in the middle of a sermon series on the Fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5. If you have been with us, and you read ahead, then you’ll notice that we’ll be talking about peace this morning. And man, I don’t know about y’all, but the more we go through these, I’ve been realzing how little I actually live my life through the Spirit. And honestly, I’m glad I get to talk about Peace this week, because next week is patience, and if I were preaching that, it would probably just be a 25 minute time of public confession because of little I exercise patience in my life. Anyway, when it comes to peace, there are two things I want to talk about quickly, and then one big thing where we’ll spend most of our time. Because, here’s the thing about peace:

This is the thing we want between ourselves and God, this is the thing we want within ourselves, in fact, most of our problems wouldn’t seem that bad if we just had this peace within ourselves, and it’s something we want and are commanded to pursue in our relationships. Here’s the thing, peace with God leads to peace within ourselves, and then, once we have peace within ourselves, we’re able to have peace in our relationships. Or, Peace with God leads to Peace within, which leads to Peace without.

Peace with God

This first part is important, but I don’t want to spend a lot of time here. Because, if you follow Jesus, if you are a Jesus follower, if you’ve given your life to Jesus, put your trust in Jesus, who is your savior and who died for you, then you’re at peace with God. You’re good. Again, you don’t have to earn God’s peace or his approval, because, as Paul writes in Romans 5:1, You have been “Justified by faith, or “declared righteous by faith.” When you place your faith and trust in Jesus who is the son of God, who is your savior and who died for you, then God approves of you, and as Romans 5:1 then says “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We have peace with God. And this means that fear and guild no longer have any control over us. If you follow Jesus, there’s no need to be anxious about whether God approves of you or not. Because he does. He approves of you. He loves you. Some of the students in youth group are reading through the Gospel of Mark, and once a week we meet together in small groups and talk about some of the things we’re learning. And one thing that stuck out to a few students and me was in Mark chapter 1 where God refers to Jesus as his beloved son, with whom he is well pleased. And it’s like wow, that’s how God views us who follow Jesus. We’re his beloved sons and daughter who he is pleased with. We’ve been made righteous, or we’re in right standing, or simply “we’re good,” and God approves of us, is pleased with us, and we are at peace with him. And when we’re at peace with him, the fruit of the spirit is at work in our lives, because as we’ve said a few times during this series, God’s spirit and new life has been poured out onto us, has been placed in us, and as Pastor Sam quoted last week, we are working out what God has put in. And God has put his peace in those who follow him, and we are to live that out in our lives. Because peace with God also leads to peace within.

Peace within

I don’t know about y’all but inward peace would be really nice right now, wouldn’t it? With all of the stress and anxiety that we have, especially right now, but even before COVID, right? Most of us were living our lives stressed out and without peace. And even now, I know if you’re a student, some of your teachers have given you extra work just to keep you busy. Or if you’re working or looking for work the uncertainty that’s present creates a lot of stress and anxiety and With all of that, inner peace sounds pretty good, but it’s a pipe dream for most of us. And to even talk about it seems so unrealistic and out of touch with everything we’re caught up in right now.

But, it’s precisely in moments like this when we need peace the most. And thankfully, God gives us peace. And the peace that God gives is an inward peace that gives us peace of mind, and freedom from anxiety and panic. But this only comes when we trust God and have faith, or have confidence that God knows what he’s doing and is in full control of all things. Matthew, one of Jesus’ early followers, wrote an account of Jesus’ life and his teachings, and he records in his writing Jesus’ most famous sermon, which we know as the sermon on he mount. And in that we can read Jesus’ words which address specifically the things that cause us so much anxiety and stress and disturb our inward peace. Now, before I read this, I just want to say something up front: When Jesus talks about anxiety and anxiousness here, he’s referring specifically to anxiety that comes from doubting God’s goodness and control. He’s not talking about anxiety that’s caused by a medical condition or a chemical imbalance. And I say that, because this is often one of the texts used to discredit mental health. You’ll often hear people say “You’re anxious because you’re not believing right, or because you don’t trust God, so just have more faith and everything will be fine.” And for some people, and for some of us, that’s just not true. I know plenty of very faithful people who struggle with anxiety. They trust God, and they trust that even in their anxiousness, GOd is in controll and is working, but they still have anxiety. So, all that to say, is for some of us, anxiety is something that’s more a part of us that we need outside conseling and guidance, and in some cases medication to help us through. But, for most of us, anxiety is caused because we lack faith in God.

So, let’s listen to what Jesus has to say about this:

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, Already I’m uncomfortable. You ever been in a situation where you’re panicing or you’re worried or anxisou and someone next to you says “Don’t worry!” Gee. Thanks, I’m better now. Na, That’s not how it works. Don’t worry about your life, what you;ll eat, what you’ll drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Wait a second Jesus, we need these things. We need food to live. We need clothes, I mean in MA is freezing half the year, we need these things for our survival. And Jesus is like, look I know yo need those things. I’m Jesus. But isn’t life more than these things? Arent there more important things in life than food or clothes, or money, or even a job? And as we think about it, yeah, my family is more important than these, my relationships are more important than these, when we really think about it, our souls are more important than these things but still these are basic things we need to survive. And Jesus keeps going and says Okay, look at the birds. They don’t sow, they don’t reap, they don’t store things away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Your heavenly father takes care of them. Everything they need is provided by your heavenly father. Now those are just birds. “Are you not much more valuable than they?” In other words, your heavenly father, who care about birds, cares infinitely more about you. Because, again, you’re his beloved. He will take care of you.

Can anyone of you, can any one of us, by worrying add a single hour to your life? This was a rhetorical question, but I’ll answer it. I’ve lost hours, maybe even days, possibly weeks of my life by worrying.

And he later says “So, do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat, or what shall we drink or what shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, (or, people who don’t follow Jesus run after these things, or are consumed with worry over these things), and then he says “Your heavenly father knows you need them.” Your heavenly father will make sure you have what you need, because he loves you and he cares for you. And then Jesus says “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.” In other words, as you follow Jesus, as you pursue the peace that comes from trusting in his goodness and in his plan and in his control over all things, these things won’t consume your thoughts, and they won’t make you anxious and you won’t worry, and, he’s promised to provide for you.

And later, Paul will echo this teaching in his letter to the church in Phillipi, when he says “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, or the peace that doesn’t really make sense to you, but you feel at ease even though by worldly standards you shoudlnt, the peace that transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:6-7). This is the peace that God gives us. A peace that comes from a settled trust in your heavenly father’s care for you. And, it’s this decision to choose not to worry but instead pray and trust God, the God that the entire old and new testament assures us can be trusted. And God wants to take each of us to a place where our faith, where our confidence in God is so big that there nothing we have to worry about and theres nothing we have to be anxious about, and we can have true last peace in the midst of our circumstances and uncertainties.

We want that, right? I want that. Is it going to make our circumstances dissapear? No. Is it goign to make the pile of school work I have, or paperwork I just received that’s due tommrrow dissapear? No. I often think “okay, once this is complete, once this relationship is fixed, once this is done, then I’ll have peace.” Peace isn’t found in the absence of difficulty. I mean, yeah, in one sense it is, but the peace that your heavenly father offers you is an inner peace that allows you to be calm and content and reassured even in the worst situations, or the most mundain of circumstances, or the most frustrating of circumstances. It’s knowing that everything’ going to be okay in the end because your heavenly father knows you and loves you.

Great John, but where do we get this? Peace comes from trusting in our heavenly father, but how do we just trust?? This is hard, and this is an area where I often struggle, but to have the peace of God, to have the inward peace that God offers, you need to be with him. You need to make time to be in the presence of God. To pray, to talk to him about all of the things that are causing your anxiousness, the things that are keeping you from peace, the doubts you may have about his love for you. One Pastor, it might have been John Wesley, idk, but he said something along the lines of “the more I have going on in my life, the more time I need to spend alone with God.” If we’re lackign this inward peace, I think we really gotta ask ourselves, am I spending time with my heavenly father? Am I praying for peace or am i praying that God will make things easier? Am I taking intentional time away from all of the busyness and confusion and stress that fills my life and am I spending time in the presence of God?

Peace with others

And so, I think when Paul was writing the fruit of the spirit verse, I think he got to peace, and i think he’s thinking peace of God and peace with God are parts of this, but what he’s really getting at and what he want us to move forward into is this understanding that peace with God which leads to peace within, allows us to have peace without. Or, allows us to have peace in our relationships, all of them. I was thinking this week, what are the things that keep us from having peace in our relationships. And as I was thinking, and reading scripture, and reading Paul’s letters, one thing stuck out: the biggest obstacle to our peace as Jesus followers is prioritizing our preferences over our relationships. Or, when we value what we want, or what we think, more than the people we love, or more than the people we worship with. And you see this idea all over the Epistles, or the letters of Paul. So I just want to look at one example this morning, and this comes from a letter that Paul wrote to the church in Rome. So, stay with me, this is kind of a weird example, but I think it illustrates this idea keeping peace by prioritizing our relationships over our preferences, or accepting those who think or do things differently than us.

Paul writes in Romans 14:1 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. In other words, you’re going to have differences in opinions and ways of thinking, but these are disputable, they aren’t a priority. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Now, this seems strange until you understand that Rome was a very cosmopolitan or multi-cultural and multi-religious city. And many of the new Christians in this city, gentiles, came from these different cultural and religious backgrounds. But there were also new Christians in Rome who came from the Jewish faith. And the Jewish faith had a lot of strict dietary laws that they had to follow, and so Jewish Christians brought over these old restrictions and placed them within their new faith in Jesus. For example, Jews didn’t buy meat from butcher shops because that meat might have been sacrificed to an idol, and eating meat sacrificed to an idol was forbidden in Jewish religious practice. But for the gentile Christians, Jewish dietary laws and sabbath laws didn’t really make sense to them and didn’t matter that much to them. So they had no issue with buying meat that might have been sacrificed to an idol. And so there was a tension or a friction between the two groups of Christians. Both groups saw things differently and they had their own ideas or their own preferences as to how things should be done. So, Paul addresses each group. He says to the gentiles in verse 3 not to treat the jewish christians with contempt. IN other words, “Hey gentiles, this isn’t a big deal to you, and I agree, it’s not the main thing, and it doesnt matter, but to your brothers and sisters who have come from a Jewish background, this is a huge shift in doing things, and they’re not there yet. So don’t mock them for out of date rules. They’re trying to be faithful as best they can and with what they know.” And then he says to the Jewish Christians, “Hey, don’t judge your gentile brothers and sisters for what seems to you like an attitude of “we can do whatever we want. God has accepted them.” Each of you has competing ideas as to what should be done here, but the main thing is that you accept each other as God has accepted you. And, as Paul will say in verse 19 “Make every effort to do what leads to peace.” This is the fundamental instruction of this portion of scripture and Paul backs it up as he writes.

As we Just read, God has accepted both Jews and Gentiles. The same God has accepted both groups. And so for us, the same God has accepted all of us who follow him. And so, whatever opinions or differences we have on certain things, we have to remember that we’ve been accepted by the same God. And, whether you like it or not, Jesus followers are all one family, and when we have issues with another member of this family and we refuse to make peace, or we refuse to meet with them, or if we judge them, or reject them, we’re basically saying, God may have accepted you, but I don’t. And you know, I jsut dont think Jesus is cool with that. And I’m not syaing this is somethign that’s going on now. But it might be. Or it might/will be something that happens in the future. Because come on, we all get to a point where we prioritize our preferences over our relationships, and this is where most of our disagreements and fights begin.

And so, as we live in the spirit, and as we live with peace in mind, we have to be aware of these things that can potentially cause division.

Then Paul writes: 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. He’s saying “Hey, we’re all servants of the same master, so we have no right to judge one another.” The food thing y’all are fighting about doesn’t have any eternal consequences, so don’t pass judgement on your brother or sister.

And he keeps this idea going down in verse 10

You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written:

“ ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,

‘every knee will bow before me;

every tongue will acknowledge God.’ ” z

12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

Paul’s basically saying “Hey, God’s going to judge all of y’all at some point. And when he does the stuff you’re fighting over now will be seen as so insignificant and petty, and you’re going to wish you had just left it alone, because it makes no difference. You’re letting this issue divide you now and you’re refusing to act peacefully towards one another, but when you’re face to face with your savior in eternity, this issue that you’ve created, Jesus is going to look at you and say “Why did you let that come between your brothers and sisters?”

Paul keeps going:

13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. Again, you’ve got your preference, you’ve got your idea or your understanding, but don’t let that cause your brother or sister to stumble. 14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. 15 If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died.

Paul’s like, hey Gentile Christians, I get it. The food sacrificed to idols thing, you’re right. I agree with you: It’s completely fine to eat it and it and it doesn’t go against anything morally or spiritually. But, come on, for your jewish brothers and sister who have a history of faith that had an entire law code, this is huge for them, and they’re not yet where you are in regards to this issue. For them, it is unclean. And look at the stress this is causing them. Is it really worth it to continue eating meat sacrificed to idols in front of them? Is it really worthy causing them this distress? Is your preference really worth the relationship, is it really worth the division it’s causing within your community? is it worth sacrificing peace so that you can have your way? If what you’re doing is causing your brother or sister distress, then you’re no longer acting in love. Put them, put your love for them, put your relationship with them above your preference. Prioritize them first.

The New International Version Chapter 14

16 Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.

A few weeks ago we talked about Love being the main thing that Jesus wants to mark his followers. Out of the love we have for oneantoehr, the kind of love that christ had for us, comes peace. And this is what matters. The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, or, the kingdom of God is not a matter of what you think is a priority and what they think is a priority, no, the kingdom of God is defined by righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

So what do we do? How do we prioritize our relationships over our preferences?

Romans 15:2 NIV

2 Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up.

Or, as Paul also writes in Philippians 2:3-5

Philippians 2:3–5 NIV

3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

How do we prioritize our relationships over our preferences? How do we live in peace with one another? We follow Jesus’ example of humility. We look to the interests of others. We defer. What does that mean? It means, I have a preference and you have a preference, and there’s a competing idea or a tensions and it’s coming between us, and I’m going to accept your opinion, or accept your rule, or accept your preference because I value you more than I value what I want. I value you more than I value what I think. My priority is my relationship with you, so I’m going to make sure things stay peaceful.

And this isn’t a passive attitude or mindset. Peace isn’t passive, it’s intentional. And it takes vulnerability, because as we enter into relationships, and as we allow ourselves to become clsoe to oneanother as a church family, there will be tension an there will be issues and there will be competeing ideas and preferences. And I’m not saying we need to all be passive and ignore issues as they come up, I’m saying we can’t allow ourselves to value what we want more than the relationships we’re in. Peace sometimes looks like defering, it might look like listening to another’s perspective, it might look like changing your mind, but, it might look like standing your ground on an issue while lovingly and gently guiding another brother and sister, over time, to seeing things your way. Peace can play out in a lot of different ways, but what I’m saying is that it never looks like is division.

When all of this is over, and we’re back in our schools, back at our jobs, and back in the really world, will the way we talk about COVID-19 be “All I did was fight with my spouse, fight with my kids, fight with my parents, yell at my siblings,” or will it be “There was a peace I had inwardly because I was secure in my relationship with the Lord, and that flowed outwardly and there was peace in my relationships with those I was quarantined with.”?

And so, a question that I want to leave us with is this: What does peace require of me? In all situations where theres tensions or an chance of disagreement we should ask this. What does peace require of me? I have my preference they have theres, we could possibly be approaching conflict, what does peace require of me? My spouse is thinking this, I’m thinking this, could get tense, what does peace require of me? I’ve been stuck in the same space as my parents and my siblings for weeks now, and it’s already tense, and things have already blown up and there’s no peace to be found: What does peace require of me? Ad apology? An explaination, listening? As a church, what does peace require of us? Let me pray for you:

Heavenly father, thank you for restoring the peace between us and you. Will you give us inward peace in the difficulty we find ourselves in now? And of that May we live lives that seek to bring peace in all relationships we find ourselves in. May we defer when we need to defer, will you give us, through your spirit, the necessary empowering to really live peacefully in our homes, at our jobs, and in our church? As conflicts come up or tensions rise, may we ask over and over again, what does peace require of us? And may way of living be a light in world that is without peace and without hope. We ask all of this in Jesus’ name. Amen.