Peace In Every Circumstance - Frank Brancato

It certainly is wonderful to be here with each and every one of

you, we appreciate your presence.

So very much. We have a wonderful crowd here

and as has already been mentioned, if you are a visitor

among us, we hope that you would feel as you are.

And that is as our honored guest and we welcome you.

Every time that we have an opportunity to meet for an

introductory text, I invite your attention to Second

2 Thessalonians 3 · chapter mention

Thessalonians. Chapter 3 and verse 16.

The Bible says now may the Lord of Peace himself, give you

peace. Always in every way the Lord be

with you all the new American Standard renders, this verse, as

follows. Now may the Lord of Peace

himself, continually Grant, you peace in every circumstance.

You know, when we think back historically on the Thessalonian

Church, they were strong in so many ways.

But they were being tormented by persecution, they were tossed to

and fro Oh, and there was false teachers among them, they were

troubled by fear and even troubled by sin, and the Apostle

Paul had endeavored to deal with all of these troubling things,

all of the turmoil by giving them instruction.

But at the end of this brief letter, he expresses in his

benediction, if you will his heartfelt, desire, that God

would grant them peace in every circumstance of life, or as the

new King James, Says, in every way the question before us today

though, is this what was the piece that Paul was talking

about? What was he talking about when

he talked about a piece that stands up against the

circumstances of life? Well, for an introductory

remark, let me just mention some things that were said by written

by Paul before we get into the benediction in verse 16 and I

think there's just kind of sets it up.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this but this sets up

what he's about to say. Here is in a thumbnail sketch,

Chapter 3 of second Thessalonians.

Paul begins at the very beginning and he says, finally

Brethren pray for us. Now, you know what's interesting

about those phrases that he uses and bursts one?

I think that there are I think you can know a lot about a

person by the things in which he prays for You know, I think

sometimes people get so engrossed in all of the things

that they have going on in their life, that they fail to remember

the things that are really important, and sometimes in our

prayers, our prayer life becomes all about us and all about the

things going on in our life, what Paul was being greatly

persecuted, you know what he said.

He said Brethren pray for us. Now he wasn't asking for an

easier life, he wasn't asking to be free from persecution, he

even says it. He said, pray for us that why

that the word would have free course.

That's what the King James says, it literally means to run

without obstacle. The only thing that Paul Matter

What mattered to Paul was that no one stood in the way of

preaching the gospel. You know, he says something else

too. I love this.

He said that it would run swiftly the new King James and

be glorified just as it is with you.

And really, that's the mission of every Christian to take the

seed of the Gospel to the world. That's the mission of the

church. Take the seed of the Gospel to

the world, and it would run without fruit with free course

without obstacle. And thirdly, it would be

glorified in the heart of the recipient.

He begins right there. And then he says this He said

that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for

not have all the faith, but the Lord is faithful.

Who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.

I really had to make that point. I really had to read that verse.

You know the word stablish means strengthened.

Have you ever felt that you just too weak?

Have you ever felt that? I'm just really struggling in my

life. I'm just wait.

Have you what? Written off your behavior and

choices because you're just weak and you can't help it?

These are thoughts that sometimes we have, I just can't

help but I'm weak but this passage is a promise.

He said God is faithful that what that God will establish you

that means strengthen you That is a promise from God.

Have you ever stopped to consider that had all the things

you go through in your life? You don't have to be weak.

You can make a choice not to be weak and if you submit yourself

to God, it says if you do that and God promises, I will

strengthen you and you'll get through it.

So he begins by saying, pray for us at the gospel would have free

course of a run without obstacle.

It would be glorified in the heart of the recipient and pray

for us that we are removed from the evil one because they're

standing in the way the gospel that's all he cared about,

alright? Then he moves on and in the next

group of scriptures in verses 6 to 15 he deals with idleness and

from a historical standpoint. You remember that?

They after the first letter was written, Misunderstood when the

Lord was going to come back so they gave up doing the things

that they should do and their responsibilities and they became

busy bodies and they became engrossed in other men's matters

and all of that and they stop taking care of their daily

responsibilities Paul Cricket that too.

And then he gets down to the end.

He gets down to verse 16 and he says, this, in the benediction,

if you will now may the Lord of Peace himself, give you peace.

Always in every way. Way the Lord be with you.

All, you know, the first two words there now may Mark a

transition. In other words, Paul is going

from command in excitation to petition and prayer.

He's expressing not only is prayer itself but the wish that

was in his heart and in doing so his wish for them is to

experience. Peace.

He's asking for what God has already promised, not what God

reluctantly does. Was, you know, really that's

what prayer is all about. It's about requesting things

that God has already promised things that are available that

God has already promised, but their conditional Upon Our

request in prayer. One man.

Said, one time, that prayer is lining up with what?

God has already promised to do or already promised to give.

And in this case it's piece, all right?

What is it? What's piece?

Here are some definitions of Peace.

There were some men that were asked Give a definition to

piece. This is what they said.

One guy said this. One guy said, Peace is the sense

of calm and tranquility. Another said it is quietness and

Bliss. A third one said, it's the

feeling you get when you believe everything is well What else?

It's the attitude of Tranquility, when everything is

the way that you would like it to be.

And you know what's interesting about this of all the things

that I just put on the screen. Do you know, you can get every

one of those little pill? You can get every one of these

feelings with the pill with a prescription with a good night's

sleep, sometimes because we are we listen to people.

We might by deception feel a certain way, but all of these

things really are superficial, these are circumstantial piece.

So what is he talking about, though?

He's talking about things that have nothing to do with the

circumstances in your life. Not Produced on a human or

circumstantial level and I got to tell you, do you know why

people are looking for this? You know why?

And by the way, nobody likes to feel bad, right?

But wants to feel bad, you know why most people are looking for

this kind of piece, because this kind of piece is the kind of

piece that makes you feel better.

You got stress in your life, you got things in your life, things

aren't going the way you would like it to do.

You know what we want that we want circumstantial peace.

We want the circumstances in our life to be different so we can

feel better. Most people are looking for

these things in their life, granted every one of us, but

every one of those things can be destroyed by, failure, can be

destroyed by doubt, fear difficulty, anxiety.

It can be Be torn apart by violated relationships.

How about guilt and shame, and regret and sorrow.

It can be destroyed by being mistreated or victimized by

someone destroyed relationships now.

Did you know that everything that I just said?

I said a lot of negative stuff. I gave you a list of negative

stuff. Everything I said is life.

It's life. Remember that country song years

ago? Sounds like life to me it was

the description of a guy that had all these things going on.

This went went South on me. This happened over here and

really all it was was life. So in other words,

circumstantial, peace is peace. That is based on the

circumstances of life, but it can be destroyed by things in

life. But it's the one that we want,

because it's the one that makes us feel better.

So, what is the piece that he's talking about?

What's Paul referring to? He is talking about spiritual

peace. What is that?

What is spiritual peace? It's confidence that everything

is right between myself and God. Did you get that?

That's it. Spiritual peace is knowing

regardless of the circumstances in my life that what first of

all it's confidence that everything is right between

myself and God. Remember not long ago, I made

the point in a sermon very recent and I talked about

there's a difference between confidence and conceit, okay?

There's a big difference between that and there's a difference

between arrogance and Assurance. Spiritual peace is knowing and

we're going to get to You know, that.

But spiritual peace is when you have confidence that everything

is right between myself and God and it doesn't matter what

happens to me in my life. Number two, that God is in

control of my life In Time and Eternity.

Do you think that way in your life?

Do you think that way when you have all kinds of negative

experiences and circumstances is your mind going to?

What is really important? Is it spiritual?

Peace is everything right between you and God that God is

in control in Time and Eternity, but there's more.

So what I'm saying is this spiritual peace is the presence

of a calm assurance that everything is Well with My Soul.

and, It has nothing to do with the circumstances of life.

Nothing. It's everything to do with your

relationship with God. How is that?

Well, first of all, let's talk about the spiritual piece.

Number one, some things about it.

There's four things number one. Spiritual peace is divine.

If we go to verse 16 of our text, Paul says, now may the

Lord of Peace himself. Now, the word the pronoun is

emphatic, in the sentence of himself, emphasizing his

personal involvement Notice this, it's good.

The god, or the Lord of peace. That gives the piece.

Do you know why? It's the essence of his nature?

God is many things. God is is Justice.

God is perfection. How about that?

How about God is love you. Remember that song?

We used to sing come. Let us all unite to sing that

God is love. These are all attributes of God.

So in every aspect, when we take, look at God, he is all of

those things. Have you ever stopped to

consider though? That in addition to all of that,

He himself is also peace. Now, I don't know about you, but

I want to have the kind of peace, that is not subjected to

the circumstances in my life. I want to have the kind of peace

that God gives as the author of piece itself.

That's the kind of that. I'd like to have why God is

perfect. He has perfect peace.

There's no stress. There's no anxiety.

He never worries. He never doubts, he's never

unclear. He's never unsure.

He is always as one man said at perfect calm.

He enjoys perfect and eternal Harmony within himself.

Wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't it be great?

To be in Perfect Harmony. With yourself.

That's amazing. Now, I got to tell you

something, I understand sometimes when people have

really bad stresses and depressions as steps real

sometimes people even need medication.

What I'm talking about though, I'm talking about a piece that

doesn't need medication. I'm talking about the kind of

peace, that only comes from God and it's on a different level.

It has nothing to do with the things of life.

It has nothing to do with feelings, it has everything to

do with confidence assurance and knowing and what is that?

It's about spiritual peace. And you know what?

Paul says he said now may the Lord of Peace himself, give you

peace. Why?

It's the essence of his nature, wouldn't it be great to have

that kind of peace? 1st Corinthians chapter 14 and

verse 33. It says for God is not the

author of confusion, but of peace.

Now, folks, I know that people often times in the religious

world and in the world itself, they're confused religiously And

you know, I heard somebody say one time that he was against

organized religion, this is what he said.

He said because there's so many different things and there's so

much confusion out there. It's impossible to know what's

really right? And what's really true but

notice what the Bible says. The Bible says this for God is

not the author of confusion, but of Peace.

Do you know what that means? That means if I'm confused, it's

not God's fault. If I'm confused, it's my fault.

And when I deviate from what God said to do and I'm confused in

what I believe. It's my fault.

God is not the author of confusion but of Peace.

God is perfect. God is perfect in every way.

He's the author of Peace. It's part of his attributes and

nature, and he's The Giver of it, too.

We'll get to that part in just a minute.

But what about Jesus Christ, and what about the holy spirit

because in heaven, there's three that bear record.

The Bible says, there are three that bear record In Heaven.

There Is God, there is Jesus Christ, and there is the Holy

Spirit and the Bible says and these three are one and people

get that all messed up and they say you see, there's only one

personage in the godhead know. There's three specific

percentages in the godhead. Three persons, God, Jesus and

the Holy Spirit, and when it says they are one, it means they

are one in purpose. They agree in one.

They work together. You've heard me say this but

it's so simple. This is the easiest way to say

it. Let's just say me and Chris we

talked about something and we're going to go to talk and Jack and

Chris and I agreed on that and we might go to Jack and say, you

know what? Kristen, Chris and I were were

one on that. Meaning we agree?

That's all that means. Not one person.

Aged. They all agree.

So what am I saying? I'm saying that the essence of

peace is an attribute of God but not only God, Jesus Christ two

seasons 2 beginning in verse 13 but now in Christ Jesus you who

were once a far off have been brought near by the blood of

Christ for he himself is our peace.

Jesus is also called The Prince of Peace.

He is the bringer of Peace. He came and established a

kingdom of peace. What about the Holy Spirit?

Holy spirit's in there to Romans, 14 and 17.

For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but

righteousness and peace and joy. In the holy spirit.

Let me talk about how they work together.

Give you an example of that. Let's talk about prayer, for

example. Okay, talk about prayer.

And let's talk about how we talk to God and how God talks to us,

very simply, you know, Jesus said in John 14 and 6 that no

man, comes unto the father except by, or through me and

that's in every way and it includes prayer.

So when we pray to God, the Father hears God, the Father,

when we pray to God, we pray through Jesus Christ.

Or simply put as our brother pray, just a moment ago.

In Jesus name, we pray through Jesus Christ.

So we talked to God, on our time, we pray for his

providential care. We pray through Jesus Christ.

They work together. And what else?

When God speaks back to us, he doesn't do it directly.

He does. So through the word of God,

which is the revelation of the spirit.

So, we pray to God on our time. He answers us on his time.

That's the his providential care, but he speaks to us

through his word and that's the Holy Spirit.

That's the revelation of the Holy Spirit, they all work

together. So saying once more, the source

of peace is divine, it is God, it is Jesus Christ and it's the

Holy Spirit and they are all working together as the source

of peace. But number two, what else?

What else? It's a gift.

It's a gift. In fact, the verse says, this

now may, the Lord of Peace himself give you peace.

Give you peace in Psalm 85 and 88.

Listen to this. I will hear what the god, the

Lord will speak, what? God the Lord will speak for.

He will speak. Peace to his people and to his

Saints. So God, grants are gives peace

to those that belong to him. Now, this is very much part of

the New Testament. We can read about it in Romans,

first, and second Corinthians we can read about it.

In Galatians, we can read it about in Ephesians and

Colossians. And we can read it right here in

second Thessalonians. We can fight it again and Titus

and Philemon and so forth that God is The Giver of peace and

you will find in these Epistles that piece is given by God to

God's people me give you another example.

In John chapter 20 Remember when the Lord walked into the upper

John 20 · chapter mention

room, with his disciples know what he said, and what he say,

he says, peace unto you. He wasn't saying, I hope you're

having a nice day. It wasn't saying that he wasn't

saying, oh, I wish you well no it is divine and he was giving

them peace. So when the Lord said peace to

you and several verses say the same thing.

In John chapter 20, several verses they say, peace to you

John 20 · chapter mention

peace unto you. It's found in verse 19, verse 21

and verse 26. He was giving them peace, peace

to you. Now here's a really important

question, okay? We got to, we have to look at

this do unsaved people. Have the piece that we're

talking about. And this is why we have to look

into that. You know the Bible says this,

the Bible says that when you talk about God's blessings on

people that there's Sun Shines on the just and the unjust on

The Godly and the ungodly. And all that means is this,

there's good things that sometimes happen to people that

are not Christians and sometimes people have prosperity in their

life and they're not Christians. That's what that means.

The Sun Shines on the just and the unjust.

So my Question is this with that being the case and with peace

being a gift that comes from God, I got to ask you.

What about this? If the Sun Shines on the ungodly

and The Godly alike, do unsaved, people have the piece that we

are talking about Well, let's look, Isaiah 57 verse one.

I create the fruit of the lips, peace, peace to him, who was a

far-off and who is near says the Lord.

And I will heal him, but the wicked are like, the troubled

sea, when it cannot, rest, whose Waters cast up mire and dirt.

So, first of all, the words, far and near here could very well be

talking about Jew and Gentile, but that's not the point that

I'm making the point that I'm making is this, what about the

peace that God gives does God give peace to Save people.

The answer is no. Stay with me on this.

I'll prove it to you. But I want to read something

from a man that wrote an eight. 1686 he wrote this, he wrote

this paragraph. He says peace and we're talking

about the peace of God. Peace flows from sanctification.

But the unsaved have nothing to do with peace.

They may have a truce but no peace.

God made for Bear the wicked a while and stop the Roaring of

his Cannon. But though there be a truce yet,

there is no peace. The unsaved may have something

that they look like piece but it's not.

This is the devil's piece that rocks, Man.

In The Cradle of security. He cries peace, peace.

Peace. When men are on the precipice of

Hell, and then he said, listen to this statement.

The seeming piece that a sinner has is not from the knowledge of

his happiness, but the ignorance of his Danger. 2012, and give

you an example. 2012 are good friends, Ivan and Jeanne, Acosta

and Cameron. They came to Bakersfield and

they spent all night with us on Friday night and the next day in

the van. So yeah, the adults driving yet

Ivan and Gina they were the adults, they were driving their

car and then you had the kids the rest of us in the other car

driving and I had the boys with me and we're cruising right

along and as we're doing, we're going down the freeway.

And you were talking about man, we're going to ride Goliath.

We're going to ride Superman. We're going to management.

We have a great time and I'm cruising along 75, maybe a

little quicker and I'm just cruising right along with not a

care in the world, not a care in the world.

I'm with the bond with the kids were having a good time.

We're talking about all we're going to do right?

Well, all of a sudden, I got a call from Ivan, he said look we

gotta pull off. I'm out of gas.

So we do and we're down around the base of the Grapevine.

We pull off the side of the road and I happen to just walk in the

front of the van. I just walked around to the

front and I look down and the tire was coming apart.

And it was the passenger side front tire and it was coming

apart. And instead of, that's my fault,

is Tina's van. But I'm supposed to take care of

that and watch for that stuff. I missed it.

Okay. So you know we had to do with

there's no way we're going to drive to Magic Mountain.

Now we have to look and we got our phones out.

You know you do anything with phones found out the nearest

place was only two miles away, that's old tires.

Now I'm not driving 75. Five miles an hour or a little

quicker. Now I'm in the slow lane.

I'm Driving, Miss Daisy. And I got to tell you, I'm

praying the whole time. I'm just thinking that any

minute this tire is going to come apart.

Fortunately, we made it bought a new tire, put the new tire on

the van. No problem, right?

Here's my point. When I was driving down the road

at 75 miles an hour, without a care in the world, I was doing

so not because I had knowledge of my security, but I was doing

so because I was ignorant of the danger, And folks, that's what

happens when an unsaved person, feels a feeling of Peace, in

their mind, ignorant of the danger.

So I was in perfect peace in my mind but it was a delusion.

There's another kind of peace to, it's called false peace.

Let us never be this person ever please there's false peace and

I'll just be brief on this. But false peace is confidence

based on conceit. It's confidence based on conceit

and not fact it's based on pride and not truth.

It's a peace that comes from an understanding of their true

condition, but it's a piece that comes from their own conceited,

assessment of themselves as being worthy.

It's kind of like this. I know I'm not doing what's

right? I know I'm not serving God as I

should. But I think it'll be all right.

That's false peace. I'm not a Christian.

I haven't obeyed the gospel. I've been baptized emission my

sins. I'm not a member of the Lord's

Church. But it's all right, I'm a good

person. And I think if God is keeping

score somewhere on one side, perhaps on some Ledger that he

would write down would be all the good things that I do on the

other side. We all the bad things, I'm not

perfect. So there are bad things but I

think it'll all work out. I know I'm not living, right?

I'm not doing right but I think you'll be all right.

That's false peace. It's coming from an

understanding of what your true condition is, but thinking it's

still going to be. Alright, let's never be that

guy. That's never be guilty of false

peace, listen to this. This is a piece by the way, that

separates what God has joined. This is really interesting in

Psalm 85 and 10. Look at this, please look at

this. Mercy and Truth have met

together. And righteousness and peace have

kissed. The word literally means fused.

Now, we get this, right? We get this mercy and Truth.

Go together. In other words, if I want the

mercy of God, I have to obey truth.

We get that they go together. If I want, Mercy aktobe truth.

What about this? What about peace?

Righteousness is right. And doing or the outward

manifestation of a Godly heart in my behavior.

Righteousness, goes along side of Peace there together.

They're fused together. If you want the peace, that God

has and God has promised. It has to go alongside a

righteous life in order to have the gift of God's peace.

Let me give you another passage. How about this Deuteronomy 29

and 19 I have peace even though I walk in the stubbornness of my

heart. Another translation says or

follow the dictates of my heart as though, the drunkard could be

included with the sober. You know, that's really an

amazing phrase right there, that the drunkard can be included in

the sober. I remember, I remember in

college, I remember a lot of times, a young person would get

inebriated and they would think that they could act sober in it

and nobody would know. Here at you ever seen that?

Somebody's really intoxicated but in their mind, they're

absolutely convinced that they could fool everybody.

I'm not, I'm not drunk. How many times people use

alcohol or some other substance and get behind the wheel and in

their mind? They're thinking I'm good, I'm

good. Don't you see what?

He's saying? The false peace that we're

talking about. It's described in the book of

Deuteronomy 29 as the guy that gets intoxicated and thinks he

can fake everybody out. It's the same thing.

As if he could be included with the drunker.

That's false peace. He's living under the illusion

that you can separate from God, what your true condition is, but

you can't, and I'll tell you something else to this kind of

Peace, cannot pass the trials of life.

I'm going to tell you right now, please get this.

I don't care what your circumstances are, the trials of

your life are going to continue on and it doesn't matter how

good you decide to be. You're still going to have the

trials in your life. You're going to have them.

If we have the wrong kind of peace.

That is circumstantial piece and that's what we're hanging our

hat on. That's not the kind of piece is

going to get us through the trial.

It's not it's not going to get us through.

So what kind of we talking about?

We're talking about the kind. That would welcome a trial.

We're talking about spiritual, peace, and spiritual Peace, by

the way, this is our third point is available, it's available.

It's always available. The verse says, this Now may the

Lord of Peace himself, give you peace.

Always or continually. Now I know this sometimes peace

can be interrupted. It can be interrupted, you know

how? Two ways.

Two ways and both of them are succumbing to the flesh.

So the piece that we're talking about that is divine that is a

gift and that is always available.

It can be interrupted by succumbing to the Flesh and that

can happen in two different ways.

What do you do though? The first way, by the way is

when your victimized by doubt and fear, okay?

If you doubt and you let the fears in your life, beat you and

win over faith, you're going to be shaken, and you're going to

lose your peace. It's going to be interrupted.

Now I got to tell you something, folks.

I'm not standing before you saying that we're not going to

have things were afraid of. You've heard me say this many

times over the years, there would be no such thing as

courage. If there were no fear.

Fear is not the problem, fear is the problem.

Only when it wins over your faith and when your fear is

pulling you in One Direction and your faith is pulling you in the

opposite direction. You know what that's called?

That's called anxiety, that's called stress.

It's strangling us on the inside if we allow the fear to win.

You know, what's going to happen?

The peace. That God said I will give you is

interrupted So what do you do? What do we do?

If that happens, here it is. Trust in God.

Now, I'm not saying this in a general sense.

I'm not saying this in a general sense and I'm glad that I'm glad

that the word of God says this, so it doesn't look like.

I'm just saying, you know, whatever your problem is, just

you just gotta trust in God. Notice, I'm going to get very

specific with regards to peace and we find this in Psalm 42 and

11. Why are you cast down O my soul?

And why are you disquieted or disturbed within me?

Hope in God. God.

You got to trust in God. Recently, I preached on faith.

I preached on the power of faith.

And one of the things that we learn about faith, Is we learned

that Faith produces something? And it produces hope, one

produces the other. So if you don't have hope that

you should have and you don't have the peace of God that you

should have regarding hope. Maybe it's because your faith is

little and weak. Maybe you're like the disciples

who so many times. Jesus said, oh, you of little

faith. And what did we learn?

We learned that the antidote for little weak Faith was persistent

prayer. If you're struggling in your

faith, start praying more. Where your knees out praying to

God? That is the antidote for little

weak faith. Persistent prayer.

The psalmist, David said, hope and God, that's one way.

By the way, that you can have our piece interrupted.

Here's another way, it's when we turn back to sin, two ways, turn

back to sin or because we doubt in Psalm 85 and 88, I will hear

what the Lord was speak for. He will speak peace to his

people and to his Saints, but let them not turn back to

falling. So, two ways that fact that this

piece can be interrupted, When were victimized by doubt and

fear or when we turn back or turn away from God.

So what do we do? What do we do?

If we have sin in our life and we lost our peace, all you got

to do is make it right? All you have to do is repent

confess that sin to God and change your life.

One of the greatest things about being a Christian is it doesn't

matter how many times you've messed up, you can change your

life immediately, and come back. That's a greatest thing in the

world. Oh, and by the way, if you mean

it, if you really mean it, you're forgiven like the sin

never happened as some of the greatest things ever, you know?

A man does if you keep messing up, people write you off, not

God, God didn't write you off. If you mean it they can't just

say stuff and not mean it. If you mean it you're forgiven

like it never happened and you can have the peace restored back

to you in your life. Finally though.

There's something else about this piece.

The spiritual peace, it is not subject to the circumstances of

life. And I'm finished.

This is our final point. Let me just say this.

Now, the Lord of Peace himself, give you peace.

Always in every way or based on any circumstance in your life

piece. This piece is not affected by

anything in the worldly realm. It's a piece that is built upon

confidence. That all things are well in the

eyes of the Lord with my soul and nothing in this world can

take that from us. Have you ever stopped to

consider that nobody in the world can take that away?

They can't. But if your mind is set on the

things of the world, as the most important things in the world

and you don't have your mind fixed on other things, and

spiritual things, then you'll be tossed to and fro with things

that you would lose or gain in life.

But if Heaven is your goal. And nothing is more important

than serving God that God is in control of your life and Time

and Eternity. It doesn't matter.

This world can take it all at doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter Romans 8:28. Get this passage is a very

Romans 8:28

misunderstood Passage And we know that all things work

together for good to those that love God and those who are

called according to promise people misunderstand.

This passage. This passage folks does not mean

that if I love God, everything is going to work out.

That's not what that means. I've heard people say well you

got to do is love God and then God will make it all work.

It'll all work out. Nope sometimes it didn't work

out. Sometimes it doesn't work out

sometimes, God allows things and it doesn't work out.

It's - its hurtful painful we endure the and we endure that

So, Paul was not talking about every single circumstance in my

life is going to work out. What it means is in God's plan,

everything in God's plan is going to work out for those who

love God and the Bible talks about, if you love him, you got

to keep his commandments. So I'm talking about a faithful

child of God, that loves God. Don't worry about the

circumstances in your life. Don't worry about whatever's

thrown your way because everything in God's plan is

going to work out. His plan for salvation his plan

that he never leaves our side, his plan that he gives us the

strength to endure and persevere.

He's planned for all the things that we have and all the

spiritual blessings that we have in Christ and most importantly,

eternal life waiting us. And it doesn't matter what

happens to us while we live here.

We got that. Give you another example,

though. This go down 10 verses from from

chapter 8, and verse 28 of Romans.

And I'm going to get specific and Tell you, Paul also dealt

with this. Here are some specifics.

By the way, these things are going to work together for good.

For, I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor

principalities nor powers nor things present, nor things to

come nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall

be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ

Jesus, our lord that's tough. That's tough.

That will work together for good little side.

Note, here. I'll be very brief little side

note. But can God use something that's

negative in your life? And have a positive outcome by

way of its influence on others and serve his purpose.

Yes. Yes.

And he does that what I'm saying is it may not work out the

physical circumstances in life, sometimes we just have to endure

it. Sometimes we just have to make

it through. So in conclusion, I'm done.

We talked about the kind of peace that Paul wanted them to

have. This is spiritual peace.

It's divine. It's a gift.

It's available and it's there. Regardless of the circumstances

in your life, we learned. We learned also, it's given to

those who obey God, it then brings a feeling of contentment

in a settled attitude and that guards, our hearts like a

fortress. And by the way, to let me inform

7 says I love this in the peace of God.

Which surpasses all understanding will guard your

hearts and Minds through Christ Jesus.

Jesus our lord. Another translation means that

says Garrison, in other words, all of this, the peace of God

that Paul has been talking about you.

It's going to do, it's going to guard your heart.

It's gonna guard your heart. I don't know about you, but I

think we all need our heart Garden.

It's all about the heart. Can you imagine a promise that

so great or a piece? That is so great.

And the world can't even explain it.

It surpasses all understanding in your mind, but it's the peace

that comes from God, is divine. It's a gift, it's available and

circumstances will never take it away.

And it's going to guard or Garrison, your heart.

Everyday, you live. The peace that surpasses all

understanding that is peace. Regardless of circumstances, I'm

through this morning. Thank you so much for your kind

listening. We never know the hearts and

minds of those that are present. Are you hearing the sound of my

voice to? You're not a child of God the

steps to become a child of God are very simple.

Romans 10:17, Paul says. So then faith comes by hearing

Romans 10:17

and hearing by the word of God. So hearing the word of God

produces Faith. Jesus said in Mark 16:16, he

Mark 16:16

that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.

He that believeth not shall be damned.

And we understand the word belief there in that passage

means having the force to obey. In other words, I find out what

the Lord wants me to do in my life.

I believe it so much. I'm going to Obeyed today, when

he got to do, be baptized for the remission of your sins.

Jesus also said in Luke 13 and 3, I tell you nay.

But except you repent, you will all likewise perish.

In other words, I got to change my mind.

I have to change my life. I've been going in this

direction. I don't want to do that anymore.

I want to live for Jesus. I want to go in the opposite

direction. That's repentance.

Bible also says, if you confess me before men, Jesus said, I

will confess you before my Father, which is in heaven and

Acts chapter 8, we find out exactly what that confession is.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

That convention is, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of

God and upon taking all of those steps, they lead us to the point

of Salvation. They lead us to the point of the

watery grave of baptism, they lead us to that point of

Salvation. In First Peter, 3:21 Peter said

the like figure whereunto even baptism.

Even baptism doth also. Now, save us, not the putting

away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience

toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

If you have never done that, we would, we would love to assist

you in doing that today, if you would, maybe you have taken

those steps, but you haven't been living as you should, it's

time to come back. We thank you for listening to

our podcast, put on by the Church of Christ at 22:15 plans.

Road in Bakersfield, if you would like any additional

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