Seeking Divine Serenity: Navigating Life's Struggles with Faith, Hope, and the Peace of Christ

Some researchers have studied the last 4,000 years of civilization and concluded that there's been true peace in 8% of those 4,000 years where there was no known war in our globe just a fraction.

Many of you have seen those images already and you know that tonight, in the Christian sectors, christmas Eve will be far different in a lot of those war-torn areas, and that's why we continue to pray for brothers and sisters that we may not know but who know the same Lord that we do in those areas.

And here on the home front, it seems like our radical autonomy and our secularistic viewpoint continues to spin in such a way that where we put our hope and where we put our source of peace is failing us, and the depression and anxiety and skepticism that's coming out of that is the opposite of peace, and there's so many people that you know and I know today that are looking for it, but they have misdefined it, and so when they think they have grasped it, they're really deceived one more time.

And that's a sobering beginning to today, but it's a beginning that we need to put in perspective of the most positive news that we could possibly talk about for the next few minutes, and that is, if you're looking for peace.

Many of you out there know where you can find peace, because the good news is, peace is a person.

It's not a state of mind that has anything to do with the world or my circumstances or your circumstances.

It's really not even a matter of my character and your character.

Peace is a person, and in 700 BC we'll talk about this a little bit more tonight in Christmas Eve, service, isaiah stands, who had no business knowing any of this stuff, and supernaturally he stands and says there's this great king coming, better than the one who has just left us, who's David, and he will be so powerful that his kingdom will last forever, but he won't be a military king.

He'll be far superior because he will restore peace on the inside, because he is peace.

He called him the prince of peace 700 BC.

Paul comes along later, and that's where we'll be today, and he says Ephesians 2, 14,.

He says let me remind you, this person, who is Jesus, is your peace.

And so we start with that.

There is great hope today.

My name's Randy, by the way.

Thank you for being here today.

Let's pray first, lord.

Sometimes peace is so elusive and we can fall into the trap of just throwing our hands up and wondering are we going to be able to place hope and faith in any kind of structure here?

But we know that ultimately, you're still working like you always have been.

Your spirit is alive and for those of us your spirit lives in.

We can expect not only to possess that peace but to have it in abundance.

And so, lord, today, right now, as we sit or as we view out in the audience some remote areas, I pray that you will clearly, clearly show us your love and clearly clearly show us what the next step needs to be for us individually, as Christ followers.

Lord, change us today more conforming to Christ, and we will be the winners for that.

Thank you for what you're about to do.

Please come, holy Spirit, amen.

So how you doing Good, met a few of you for the very first time and that's always like maybe the highlight of my day, and I'm thankful to have done that at 9 and at 9.

We've got to celebrate some decisions earlier and I hope we get to celebrate that day.

That's why we always have what we call an altar call.

That's just an opportunity for you to just come forward, either for prayer or, as said in prayer, next step decision like, okay, I'm a Christ follower but I need a place, because we're not supposed to be alone, we're supposed to be in community with others and this is where God's led me, or I've been away from Jesus a long time, need to come back, make that right or, most importantly, I think baptism's in my future, because I'm not sure I know Him or I'm pretty clear I don't know Him and I need to know Him.

However, that applies to you and might I also say you look so much more awake than that crowd that stumbled in here last Sunday at 10.30.

Remember the weather?

Oh, my goodness, that was a struggle and I got to admit it was frustrating.

It was a little bit frustrating all day long to see people struggling to get here and the mud and the slog and this and that, and I guess I don't mean for it to be confession about me, but I got frustrated because at one point, right after I started talking, I looked out and somebody, like right out there, close by, had already gone, like that, and I'm thinking I knew it.

And you know you try not to look, try to focus elsewhere, but so by the end of riding back, my wife Sherry's, you know, faithfully over there next to me and I just figured I needed to vent and I said I'm sorry, I need to tell you things I can't tell other people I'm frustrated with and all this, sherry, but I got to tell you you need to get a little more rest on Saturday nights.

You don't need to go sleeping more like All right, where did I say we're in Romans, chapter 8?

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Romans, chapter 8, 12 through 17,.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Paul has written it.

You know what Paul has done us all a favor here?

If you're like simple thinker like I am, he's grouped the whole world into two groups.

That's it.

He says basically there's only two groups.

There are the world followers or they're the word W-O-R-D.

Followers.

If you're following the world, here's what you can expect.

If you are people of the word, which means you are Christ followers, here's what you can expect.

So I like that.

We're going to plunge right in, since Jesus is our peace.

Then how do we live it?

Well, that's where he comes in handy with Romans, chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

So we're going to start at verse 12 and I'd like to make three points, if we have time, about how this is good news, really good news for me and you, trying to make our life fit into a broken culture full of broken people, and also inside the church that I love so much here, because, guess what?

The same people that are in here are broken too, just like people out there.

We're just maybe, hopefully, we know where our hope lies.

So we're going to now that we have the fourth guarantee.

Our first point here about the good news is we have the opportunity to be led by the Spirit and not our own natures.

We all have a nature that is sinful.

We're born that way according to the Bible and you get a relationship with Jesus.

But that old nature is still down in there somewhere and if you let Him or Her, she will rear Her head and get out.

So let's read verses 12 through 14 and learn about this spirit we talked about.

Therefore, teachers, we have an obligation or a debt, but it is not to the sinful nature your translation may say flesh, same thing or like the world to live according to it.

For if you live according to the sinful nature or the flesh, we could also say the worldly concerns.

We got a lot of people that are really lacking sleep at night because you're so involved in the world and we should be, we should be informed, we should lament, we should be concerned about people in distress, but we get so wrapped up in the world that we can't see beyond it, to the hope beyond the world.

And that's what he's saying.

You will die.

But if, by the spirit, you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you live Time out.

Just a second, can I give you a little hint?

Verse 13, you put to death that he says, the misdeeds of the body.

In the Greek the verb meant continual tense.

So what he is saying is you got to kill it every day.

You got to say goodbye to your old nature every day.

In some way.

It's not a one fix and you're good forever because he or she is still down in there.

And that is another reason why we need to be in community, because iron sharpens iron, right.

We all need that type of thing.

So verse 14, because those who are led by the Spirit here's good news are what that's?

And daughters of God, meaning you belong to God.

If you have children and you introduce them to someone else, what do you say?

This is my daughter, this is my son, he belongs to me because I'm his father.

So we're led by the Spirit.

You know y'all this all starts with love.

L-o-v-e.

Look at Romans 5, just back to your left a few pages, If you will.

Romans 5, 5, hugely important hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts.

By who?

The Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

So here's how it works If our peace comes from somebody outside of us, who comes into our life and gives us His peace, not my peace so this is the good stuff.

You know, this is the real stuff.

It's not the conditional stuff that the rest of the world has Then what activates that?

The Holy Spirit does?

Well, how does the Holy Spirit get it?

Through God's love.

God's love is at the root of everything.

All of God's other characteristics begin with the conversation.

Oh, you know, he's God of love, right Matter of fact, he is love according to John.

So check that out.

Think about this a second.

Your ability to live in the middle of a storm still in a state of being of peace depends on the Holy Spirit, but not only the Holy Spirit.

The love of God that the Holy Spirit puts in you.

That is not, again, your love, it's His love, and so it is not only possible, it's something we're expected to do about being people of peace.

And Roman says it so well when he says you pour out, he poured out his love over us.

You get the imagery like you're just getting doused, you're getting drenched.

In the old days, the priest would do offerings of either water or blood and they would pour it out over the altar, and what that meant was by this pouring out, you are covered from the crime of your sins or whatever.

Is the problem there?

By the pouring you are covered.

So you are covered from what makes you susceptible to being damaged and not in a state of peace.

By the love of God, you tracking me, y'all, okay, in the balcony with that.

You with me.

Still, thank you, okay, just making sure you're still breathing up there.

So let me try to illustrate.

This week we had some cold weather right, got down to near or at below freezing First night that it's supposed to get cold.

It's like 35, it's forecast.

I come home Now.

I'm not a great gardener but I got one fern that's outside that I've managed to keep alive for about three or four years and it's big old fern and I want to keep that thing.

So I thought it's getting close enough.

So I got an old dirty bed sheet that we have in the garage for that kind of purpose, and I covered that thing over that fern right, tucked it in, went in, slept like a baby that night, wasn't too worried about it.

Everything was fine.

The next day, though, it's supposed to get down to 32.

That's right on the nose.

So I talked myself out of being secure.

I lost my piece in the bed sheet.

So what did I do?

I put two on that night.

Might need two.

Everything was good.

Third night I'm heading home I hear oh, it's gonna get down to maybe 29 or 30.

Cold as yet.

So now, all of a sudden, I lost my piece about the two sheets and I put a third sheet on there, and I could, you know, did all that felt pretty good, went to sleep, everything was fine.

You want some more good news?

You don't need a second.

You don't need a third.

You got it.

You got all you're ever going to need of Jesus.

If you are a Christ follower, because you have all of the Holy Spirit in you, and if you have all the Holy Spirit, that is more than enough.

That means all your problems will go away, but you can live in peace in the worst of times because you are covered and the only reason you would become uncovered is because of your doing so.

We need to pay attention to our purpose.

Now.

We think there are five big purposes to this church and we evaluate ourselves and we don't need to be mediocre, we need to be pretty good at all.

Five of those Things like discipleship, evangelism, fellowship, ministry, serving each other and worship.

But that's not why we exist.

You listening, we exist to follow Jesus.

So, jesus, the person is much more important than programs.

Programs serve the person, not vice versa.

And every now and then I'll have folks that I meet and they walk in and they basically have the attitude of we love what you have for youth, we love the children's ministries those are important, we love the missional part and all like that.

But we are here to serve more than be served.

And what they're saying is oh, we know who that peace is, and if you're ever in that mode, you can't not serve Jesus.

John 7 is a really dramatic thing in 37, 38.

Jesus breaks up church one day.

In the temple he's in and at a real silent spot when the priest is transitioning, he stands up and yells and says hey, is anybody thirsty in here?

I got some water.

If you take this water, you'll never be thirsty again.

Don't you think that kind of brought everything to a halt?

And he says furthermore, if you drink this water, which is me, out of you will flow the same water, meaning the Holy Spirit.

But it's true, it is true.

If we daily surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit as best we can, and we submit ourselves, you will be in a state of peace.

I read about a well-known pastor long time ago.

Everybody knew him in that day and he got on a subway in his city.

He was mentioned and he met this guy.

He's got talking to him and, being a pastor, he's like I wonder if I can lead this guy to know Jesus.

The guy balked and he said no, it's not for me.

Pastor says how come, tell me about it.

He said well, if I become a Christian like you're suggesting, I won't have any fun anymore the rest of my life.

Take away all my fun.

You ever heard that.

Some of you probably said that at one time.

Right, won't have no fun anymore.

And he said well, tell me about that, what would you miss?

And he said well, you know, I like to take a drink occasionally, and he said I can do that.

Pastor said that I can do that.

He said I like to bet on the ponies every now and then a little bit of gambling.

He said I can do that.

He said really.

He said you know, I indulge in a few other vices too, and he named them.

And the pastor said yeah, I can do that.

And he got all puzzled.

The guy looked at him and he said what are you trying to tell me?

And he says I can do all those things, but I don't want to.

There's the difference.

When you have the peace of Jesus in you, the things that used to be so attractive hold no meaning for you Because you have something better.

You have something real.

His name is Jesus.

So real, quick check before we move on to point number two.

If we're going to be submitted to the Spirit, Do a little inventory.

I've done mine this week.

I still got to do some.

How satisfied are you with your current relationship one-on-one with Jesus, one to ten?

How satisfied are you today, depending on the number you give?

That's going to open up some more questions that need to be dealt with.

Y'all, this is a good time to be asking those questions, because we are literally less than two weeks from the end of another year, aren't we?

He is a person.

So, number two, look at verse 15 and 16.

We're going to trust a father over our fears, for you did not receive a spirit small s, that means your nature, that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the spirit capital S, holy Spirit of sonship or daughtership, and by him we cry Abba, father.

Abba, father is like what we would say Daddy Jesus.

Again, his disciples come to Him at another place in Matthew and they say man, you're pretty impressive by how you pray and everything.

Would you teach us to pray?

Remember how he starts at Elf Our Abba, hallowed be the name.

He's saying Daddy, holy be your name.

Now, that was hugely controversial because in those days there were certain groups of Pharisees that believed it was wrong or blasphemous to say the name of God, even out loud.

If you said His name, he was so holy, you had just sinned against God.

And so then Jesus comes along and you know as far as they were, how are we praying?

He said just call Him Daddy, I do, great being if we're in an intimate relationship with Jesus and he is so personal to us.

That's exactly how we do it, because Daddy is there, through the blood of Jesus, to take away our fears that lock us down Time out.

Let me clarify we all have fears.

Let's be honest.

We all have fears, you all, and I have stuff that, if I ruminate on it and I dwell on it too much today, I won't sleep tonight.

But our job is to trust our Heavenly Father over that, because he is greater than that and again, it's a factor of his love for us, because if we don't, we become slaves to whatever we are giving into, whether it's a vice, whether it's a fear factor, whether it's different things.

That doesn't make you an evil person because you have fears.

The giving into it just keeps you in a holding pattern that doesn't allow you to grow in your walk with Jesus, and Jesus can't use you to the effect he wants to use you.

It's like here's your potential that he created you for and here's where we're living.

We've got to bridge the gap.

There's a movie that's been out a good while now, saving Private Ryan.

How many saw that?

I'm not recommending it for family viewing, you understand, as you know if you saw the movie.

But I will say this there are a lot of spiritual symbols all through that movie.

If you're watching really closely, like for one, they've been in a firefight all day and Tom Hanks' figure is talking to the sergeant.

They're in this bombed-out church somewhere in Germany and you can hear the artillery way off in the distance.

It is dark, it's the middle of the night.

Their little group is trying to sleep.

They can't except one guy.

And one of them turns and says I don't know his name.

He says look over there, corporal.

He has sound asleep and he's just like.

I mean, he is out.

He happens to be the sniper in their unit and if you saw the movie, remember he's the one that everybody knew.

Oh, that's the Christian, because he's quoting Scripture all the time.

And I love it.

Because one of them says how does he sleep like that?

None of us can sleep.

We're so wired up, how can he sleep?

And one of the other guys says clear conscience.

Look at him.

He's sleeping like a baby over there because he has a clear state of mind.

He's what he's saying is he has peace.

And guess what?

His peace comes from outside of him, even in the middle of the war, and they're probably not going to survive it.

He is in the state of peace and sure enough they get in a big fight.

The next day he's up in the tower shooting.

This is not a great Christian analogy here, but he's shooting people left and right, quoting Scripture Remember you're strong, my strong tower, bam yow.

You are my shield, bam yow.

But in that night that was a good one, clear conscience.

The spirit is stronger than the flesh, I read.

I didn't know about her till this week.

I researched a lady named Simone Wills, I believe is how she pronounced her last name.

She was a French philosopher about 150 years ago.

She was a secularist, grew up in an atheistic home, so her philosophy and her worldview was very skewed in that direction.

Until sometime in her 30s she had this experience with Jesus in one of those pristine European chapels and it was so profound that the rest of her days her philosophy changed to be of the spiritual life.

And I read a quote by her and it still got me kind of stunned in my tracks today.

Can I read it to you?

Simone Wills said we are waiting patiently in expectation for the foundation of the spiritual life.

We are waiting patiently.

What is it that Paul says in Romans All of creation is waiting patiently, eagerly, expectantly, for what, or the coming of what creation promised us in the first time.

In other words, there's this day coming when this person, this King, this eternal Kingdom will be ushered into this earth.

He'll restore this earth.

Everybody will bow and call Him Lord, whether they believed in Him or not, and until then, our job as Christ followers is to wait expectantly.

Can I give you some more good news?

If your relationship is really firm with Jesus, even on those really tough days when you are tempted to walk away from Him out of frustration and let me be real again a lot of people are A lot of especially youngers the 40m blows.

They're kind of walking away from faith.

I got some opinions on why that's happening, but that's for another time.

I'm not going to take time on that.

If you really are in the family, can you even do that though you got adopted.

Can you get unadopted?

A Christian musician I read some of his stuff one time and he had gotten there.

He had decided, hey, I've been doing Christian albums, I'm just done.

He had had some adversity in his life.

He said I'm done with Jesus, I'm not doing that anymore.

Marriage got in trouble because of it, other things started flying apart.

So he just took off and went to Europe for a while.

So I'm going to spend a month in Europe.

I'm going to find myself.

He's on the back of a tour bus somewhere in Egypt and for the 20th time he kind of in his mind cried out and said Jesus, I believed in you, but I don't believe in you anymore.

So I'm not going to belong to you anymore, I'm not going to follow you anymore.

And he said as clear as a bell.

It wasn't audible, but a voice said in his spirit too late, and it said just stop them in his tracks.

And he spent the rest of the day on that tour, not even Cognizant of the Tour, trying to figure out what that meant.

But when he got off the bus he was a new man because he realized he's right.

If you truly are a Christ follower, it's too late to renounce him, because Romans 6 says you die with him first, then you live with him, correct?

So, y'all, if you've truly died to yourself, he's got you, he's carrying you, he's present with you.

You're not walking away.

You have no identity other than you, have no existence other than him.

That ought to be good news.

It's just too late.

Number three, real quickly.

We're going to live abundantly, even in sharing some suffering.

Look at verse 17.

Now, if we're children, then we are heirs.

That means we've got some inheritance coming Heirs of God and coheirs with Christ, if indeed.

Oh man, it's been such a good morning.

But you see the next phrase we share in his sufferings in order that we may share in his glory.

So let me ask you a little quiz question here.

If we're going to have coheirship with Jesus and Jesus is God he's going to take pretty good care of all his stuff he's got coming, don't you think?

Then we got a pretty good guarantee that we got some stuff coming right?

If he's going to take care of it because it's his, so he can share it with us, what do we have to worry about in eternity?

Absolutely nothing.

But here on earth there's still some battles to be fought.

That's where the suffering comes in.

That's why you're here, I hope, and that's why many of you watching out there belong to a church, because, as Leon Mar Steele-Ogen said, verse 17 is not about a religion of solitude.

When you are hurting, when you are suffering, you need people around you for support, and some of you are greatly inspiring to me because I know your stories.

I know what you have dealt with this year or maybe you're dealing with right now and there's nothing so inspiring to me is when somebody stands among suffering and pain and loss and they are, for all the world, acting like they won, they didn't lose the battle.

That's a curious thing to people around you, but the way in which you respond to suffering is a great definition of who Jesus is to so many people.

And so we always the reminder.

We always have eyes on us, don't we?

So let's go back and define peace real quick.

Shalom, which you all know.

That word in the Hebrew, shalom, doesn't mean an absence of conflict.

Shalom means there is this state of mind, this state of being in me that, whether it's the worst day or the best day, I'm going to live in peace with Jesus.

I know he's with me.

I'm still part of the family.

He gave it to me, he's covered me because of His love that he is pouring out on me.

Sure, doesn't look like love is happening to me right now, but that's not Jesus.

That's the world I live in and Jesus, sooner or later y'all Jesus is going to have His day, and when he has His day I'm going to be with Him because I'm part of the family, and so part of the value of being in a church community is you celebrate the wins, and we have done some of that this year, haven't we?

We have celebrated some good stuff this year, and Pinewood has also.

Well, let's be real again.

There has been some grief and there's been some pain and there's been some shedding of some tears together also because that's how Jesus defines the abundant life it is fully living, flat out, pedal to the metal, no holding back, sold out for Jesus.

You'll take His peace as one of the greatest gifts you have.

You'll deal with the adversity, because you can't do anything about some of that anyway, but you know who can and who one day, who will.

And if we die tomorrow and it hadn't happened yet we will still expect Him to show up on that day anyway.

That's what faith is called.

So what are the four guarantees we've learned in December?

We learned that you actually can please God.

It's called faith not by your works, but by your faith.

We learned also that God's love will change you radically, forever, if you let it, no matter who you are.

Last week we learned that the kind of joy he offers will actually turn tragedy into triumph, and this week he guarantees us that if we got the right kind of peace, it's not a event or a circumstance, it's a person of Jesus.

Let me read verse 18.

As we close out here, I consider Paul says our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed.

As Simone Will said, we are patiently waiting, as Christ followers, for the day that Jesus closes the loop and he brings everything into redemption.

Until that time, we've got plenty to do here on this earth, because we have been adopted into the family and we are in community together.

And iron sharpens iron and we're 2024, we're going to have a bunch of celebrations together.

Then we'll also have some grief and some trying times and we're going to cry together some too.

That's what a family does.

Nicholas Ridley was a bishop in England in the 1500s Reformation era and he ran into some trouble.

You know why.

He happened to believe that the New Testament, the grace of Jesus, was actually true and it was more important than the laws and the regulations and the system that had grown corrupt in the churches nearby there and got him into trouble.

They brought him actually before a religious tribunal and they said you need to recant what you've been saying, which we don't agree with and we think is wrong, or you're in big trouble.

And he says, well, good luck to you because I'm not recanting.

They bring him back in a second time.

They say, here, give you one more chance.

If not, not going to go well for you.

And he says, well, not going to do it.

And so they said well, we only have one choice and that's to burn you at the stake.

Not only are they going to execute him, that's one of the worst ways to go is to be burned at the stake.

And he submitted to it Nicholas Ridley.

The night before his execution they allowed him to have that meal and his sister and his brother got to go have it with him and they're sitting somewhere.

They release him with guards and they're sitting there having their meal.

And in what they wrote later I think it was the sister wrote my brother kept talking about tomorrow was his wedding day, I'm getting married tomorrow, and she kind of she knew what that meant.

And then at the end of the meal, the brother says hey, nicholas, can I spend the night with you in your cell, just to keep you company on your last night.

And he said no, thank you, I plan on getting a good night's sleep, because I'm going to sleep as well tonight, as I always do, and he did.

That's peace.

I can't find it anywhere on this earth.

It's only got one source and that is the one that, symbolically, 2,000 years ago tonight, was welcomed into the world and the angel showed up and says peace on earth, good will to men.

How could they say that?

Because peace just got here in human form, and that's what we'll light the candle to and sing to tonight that presence.

He's still here and you can know Him, or you can make that next step decision.

Whatever the Holy Spirit is leading you to, he's doing it because he loves you and he's doing it because it's best for you.

And so we get to sing, praise the Lord one more time, and as we do, why don't you stand and let me pray for you?

And if you need coming down this way, I'll see you down front, father, as the author of peace and as the giver of real life.

Lord, help us to never, ever take it for granted, but help us to make sure that we're where we need to be spiritually.

Lead us to ask that hard question of am I satisfied with you or am I still looking for other things or people?

Lord, we surrender our lives to you fresh this morning, and whatever that next step is, give us the surrender and courage to take it.

In His name, we pray amen.