Perfect Peace
Notes
Transcript
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Today, Anneliese Roy 8th Grade Promotion
Graduation / Vision Sunday July 12th
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Volunteer to try to lay down on top of the staff
What would happen if you try to put your full weight in somehting that wasn’t designed to hold you?
This is a picture of us in the world
We as christians try to put our trust in things that were never designed to hold us…then we wonder why we live in unrest and why we are not living in peace
We have to first find our allegience in the Lord
But we see the way the world is going and we think that the only way to move forward or to find success or peace is to rest on the things it looks like the world is resting on
We begin to debase ourselves.
Right, Jesus is our base … our foundation
But we begin to shift our foundation from Jesus, to the world
If you are above ground and walking around you are going to be dealing with outside pressures, sickness, and sins and worldly systems, politics, other people
Because we are living in this world as outsiders and foreigners
How many of you are going through something right now
You don’t have to raise your hands… but just sit in this thought for a second
If you are not going through some sort of chaos or trial, you will be
So where does our hope lie?
We have this general Christianese statement that says Trust God
But how do we do that? What does that really look like when the world is falling apart
When you feel like you have to fight for every inch you get… when you feel like you have to use the world’s systems to find some peace
Let’s look at Isaiah 30
“Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord,
“who carry out a plan, but not mine,
and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit,
that they may add sin to sin;
who set out to go down to Egypt,
without asking for my direction,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh
and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,
and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.
The Lord speaking through Isaiah tells us not to put our faith in worldly systems
Not because this is always bad, because the Lord uses worldly systems too
look we are physical people and we see money, we see political
But he tells us this because we seek the world first and forget to seek Jesus first
And what ends up happening is that we put lesser things up as of most importance
When you do that you always find yourself in a worse predicament
When you put your trust and rest whole heartedly on something that was never meant to hold your weight
See the problem is we see bad things and we don’t see Jesus so we try to fix the physical problems with physcial things
We are just like the isrealites. They were trying to avoid pain and heartache
We can’t get out of pain
JEsus tells us in John 16:31-33
English Standard Version Chapter 16
31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? 32 Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. 33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
You can’t get away from the trials of this world but you can have peace in the midst of it
In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city;
he sets up salvation
as walls and bulwarks.
Open the gates,
that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.
You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.
This is talking about THAT DAY the day of trials and chaos
You can’t choose what comes your way but you can choose where you set your mind
How do you set your mind on Jesus?
Read your word
Prayer
Godly fellowship… not isolation
Taking thoughts captive. If its not of the Lord, you can’t babysit bad thoughts
If you’ve been living in turmoil… if you’ve been seeking egypt to save you when the Lord is your salvation… now is the time to turn
To come back to the Lord
Jesus prayed for you in John 17
14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jn 17:14–18). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.