Unity in Peace

Let me ask you a question - If you had a choice between World peace or all the money of Jeff Bezos (Owner of Amazon worth $186 Billion)... which color Ferrari would you buy?

That’s a Joke! But if you think about it I don’t know that most people would pick peace. It seems to be under valued in our world.

Today we are going to talk about Biblical peace that we find in Christ that can bring unity to the church and the world.

We have been talking about Unity and the importance of Unity for the church.

The modern church has a tendency towards isolation and division. We are called to break down those walls and build bridges to cross the gaps of isolation and division.

Ephesians 4:1–3 CSB

1 Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

The writer of Ephesians wanted the believers to be unified. He told them to walk worthy of the calling of Christ. In order to walk in a worthy manner and to remain unified he knew that they would need to be humble, gentle, patient, loving, and bound together in peace.

Today as we talk about peace I want to first off remind you that this is a topic we all must deal with in our lives.

The world is a scary, unpredictable place. Christian or not, we are all affected by fear and uncertainty in our lives in different ways which are the opposite of Peace.

Fear, worry, and anxiety are not just things we experience in the time we live, but throughout the Bible we find all sorts of examples of the struggles for peace.

Remember the 12 disciples? These guys were Jesus’ best friends and closest followers. And even after seeing Jesus perform countless miracles, they went into full-blown panic mode when a storm threatened to sink their tiny boat on the Sea of Galilee. They even bolted when soldiers came to arrest Jesus.

Abraham, a man known for his faith, somehow misplaced that signature faith when the Pharaoh of Egypt showed interest in his beautiful wife Sarah and threatened to take her for himself.

The army of Israel, equipped with swords and spears and God’s promises, trembled in their boots at the size and ferocity of Goliath, who taunted Israel with the Bible’s first trash talk.

And even Elijah, having just witnessed God rain fire down from heaven, retreated to the wilderness to escape the death threats of Jezebel and King Ahab.

So what are we to do when we are faces with anti-peace situations?

What are we to do even when we are facing relational problems in the church?

How can we be the Peacemakers in a world that seems upside down?

We look first and foremost to our example of Peace in the word of God.

Paul reminds us in Colossians 3 of where and how to find peace through our struggles our relationships, and lives.

Colossians 3:15 NLT

15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.

This is our main scripture for the message today. It’s important and relevant if we are to live a life full of inner peace and peace towards others that brings unity.

Trust is the Foundation of Peace

New Living Translation Chapter 3

And let the peace that comes from Christ

There is peace that comes from our relationship with Christ. There is peace that we can find in the life that Christ lived. He gave us the example of how to live in peace.

Simply put, we first must Trust God. Isn’t that what Christ did on a regular basis?

Think about the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus obeyed God completely because He trusted God completely.

His life was absent of any inward turmoil, regardless of what was happening on the outside, because He trusted in the wisdom and the goodness of God’s plan for Him.

And Jesus wants us to experience that same peace in our life as well.

In order to live in peace when everything around us is in chaos we must learn to Trust God as Christ trusted the Father.

The $500 rug in the lobby of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office in Florida was supposed to say, “In God We Trust,” but the rug manufacturer mistyped the word “God,” rearranging the letters so that the rug said, “In Dog We Trust.”

It took a couple of months for someone to discover the typo, but then the rug was quickly removed and later auctioned off; the proceeds went to a nonprofit that serves abandoned and injured dogs.

I understand how mistakes are made. Misspelling a slogan is one thing, but misplacing one’s trust is another.

Yet every day many people place their trust in something other than God. Our money, abilities, friends, family…anything other than God.

When we misdirect our trust to places other than God then we can find ourselves on unsteady ground that might cause us to question God. We can find ourselves in turmoil instead of peace.

Remember Christ praying in the garden before He was arrested, put on trial, beaten, and ultimately crucified? How could He face all that He knew He was going to endure? How could He peacefully allow the suffering instead of calling on legions of angels to come and rescue Him?

Matthew 26:36–39 CSB

36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he told the disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 He said to them, “I am deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me.” 39 Going a little farther, he fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Jesus admitted that He was about to face the worst fate imaginable and yet He said, “Not my will, but yours”. How was that possible? Because He place all His trust in the Father.

God had a plan for His Son Jesus. A plan that redeemed all of creation from sin and destruction. A plan that ultimately brought PEACE to our relationship with God.

Jesus had to trust in that plan.

You have to TRUST in God’s plan too.

Things aren’t always going to be easy in life. Hardships are going to come. Somethings are so hard you might be tempted to ask if God is really on your side. What you must remember is that even when God allows us to walk through the storm if we trust Him we will find peace.

We need to have complete trust in God’s power, God’s love, and God’s wisdom.

God’s plan for your life is part of the WHOLE plan for the world. It’s not always just about our little world. We are part of the body that is working and moving to accomplish His will. And just like Christ we must OBEY and TRUST in Him no matter what we face.

Philippians 2:8 NLT

8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Well, that doesn’t sound like a victory right? What if obeying God meant that you met the same fate? You know there are people throughout history who have given their lives for the cause of Christ.

How could Christ die…how could regular people die for the will of God to be accomplished?

Peace.

Colossians 3:15 NLT

15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.

The Peace that comes from Christ is rooted in trust that God is in control. When we allow Him to have control of our lives then we can live in peace knowing that His power, love, and wisdom is great than our own.

Trust is the foundation of Peace.

Peace Must Rule our Heart

Let’s go a bit farther in the verse today: 1) The peace Christ had came from trust in the Father 2) That peace wasn’t just seated in the mind, it wasn’t just knowing, the next part of the verse tells us that it must RULE our hearts.

This second part, “rule in your hearts”, is key to living in peace. Peace on the inside and peace towards others.

The Greek word translated rule is only used once in the Bible and it’s an athletic term.

It could be translated “to umpire, to officiate at a game.”

So Paul is saying, “Let the peace of Christ have the final say, make the final call, in your life.”

There was once an umpires’ convention. Umpires were there to learn how to be better officials. And one night some of the umpires got together in a hotel room and had a late-night bull session. They were talking about how they made their calls in a difficult game.

One umpire said, “I call them the way I see them.” The second umpire said, “I call them the way they are.” The third umpire said, “They’re not anything until I call them.”

You know what? Life’s circumstances are just like that. We can’t control the circumstances that get thrown at us.

We cannot control the temptations inwardly that entice us. But the fact is, both of these—turmoil from the outside and temptation from the inside—are nothing until we call them.

Let the peace of Christ—the confidence that Christ had in God’s character—have the final say when these difficult things come into your life.

Don’t allow your inner turmoil to have the final say in your life.

Let Peace call the balls and strikes in your life.

If trust is the foundation of peace we need to know how to trust more. This is where the Bible plays such a massive role in the life of a believer.

Last week I took Lanie and Katie to Silver Dollar City. We decided in the car that we were going to ride every ride no matter how scary. Well, the very first ride we came up to was call the Wildfire. It is the fastest most crazy roller coaster they had. Lanie hopped up to the measuring stick and was just about 1/4 tall enough to ride. As we were in line I could tell her anxiety was rising. When we saw that it did 5 upside down loops she told me that she didn’t want to ride. I told her to watch all the people and see the fun they were having and that the engineers designed this ride to be safe. I reassured her that it was going to be fun, but if she really didn’t want to ride then we could take the chicken exit. Well, we rode the ride. She loved it so much that we got right back in line and rode it again.

I am going to go out on a limb and compare some of the more serious things we face in life to standing in line at a roller coaster. Anxiety, Fear, and Distress can sometimes make us forget that people have gone before us and face many more difficult situations than we have faced.

When we open up the Bible we can read about the Character and nature of God. We see what He has done for others and what His promises are for us too. It’s where we find His will and plan for our lives. It’s where we find the truth.

Truth brings Faith which brings Peace.

The Bible is also what changes our hearts from selfish and discontent to a new mind renewed by the truth. It’s a guide that will show us how to obey the will of God.

Practically speaking - you get bad news. If you are allowing Peace to RULE your heart what do you do? Do you let fear and anxiety overtake your heart and mind? No, you allow peace to be your umpire. That bad news is coming right at you…it’s not going to be a strike because the Word says that nothing is too big for God. We can have Peace in the storms of life.

Trust is the foundation for our peace, peace must be what rules our heart, and....

Peace will Bring Us Together

Colossians 3:15 NLT

15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.

That last part is really critical for us as a church. We are all members of one body and we must be bond in peace. If you look at verse 13 we find the key to living at peace with other believers...

Colossians 3:13 NLT

13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

I am going to say something that might not be popular, but I feel very strongly that it’s true.

If a believer is out of peace with another believer, it is because one or both of them have gotten out of peace with God.

I say that because in Paul says that if Christ is in us then we are ONE called to live in peace. Well it stands to reason that if we are not in peace with each other then we are not obeying or at peace with God.

It’s so very easy to forget these truths on a day to day basis because people are offensive. It’s because we aren’t perfect. We stop making allowances for each others faults because we are just tired of dealing with that difficult person.

Well, I thank God that He hasn’t stopped dealing with us individually. That every mistake is not counting against us…even though He is the only one that could and probably should have held it against us.

Romans 5:1 NLT

1 Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.

If this is true, should we not strive for Peace with all people? Think of the grace that we have recieved from a Holy God! I believe we should be identified to the world as peacemakers.

Romans 12:16–18 NLT

16 Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all! 17 Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. 18 Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.

These are not merely suggestions from a wise man, no these are commands and expectations from our loving grace giving God!

We will have a hard time in life if we are not at peace with the other members of the Body of Christ.

Practical Application for today:

Let the peace of Christ—the confidence that Christ had in God’s character—have the final say when difficult things come into your life. Don’t allow your inner turmoil to have the final say in your life. We can trust God completely when we let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. We will be at peace and enjoy unity with other people when we comprehend that we have peace WITH God through Christ which is the only way we can experience the peace of God to make it through this life to the next.