Let Peace Rule

Lift our Bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad.

Let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I'm grateful for Wednesday night.

I look forward to breaking the bread of life with my pastor and with other members of the church and anyone who's watching.

Lord.

We thank you for the Word of God and for the Holy Ghost that brings us into victory when we trust the truth of your word.

In Jesus name, amen.

Let's turn in our Bibles to Colossians, chapter three, verse 15.

And I'm going to read it out of the Amplified.

And it says here in the Amplified, verse 15, and let the peace, that is, the soul, harmony which comes from Christ, rule, that is, act as an umpire continually in your hearts, deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds in that peaceful state to which, as members of Christ's one body, you were also called to live and be thankful, appreciative, giving praise to God.

Amen, all right.

So notice, here it talks about the peace.

Let the peace of God rule in your heart.

So that's what I want to talk about tonight.

The title of the message Let Peace Rule.

You know, we can either let or not let.

Notice, sometimes, when we're just asking for peace.

We're in turmoil, we've got thoughts in our mind, our heart, our mind.

Sometimes your mind is troubled, you've got all kinds of things happening, and so we start, if we pray like a baby Christian, oh God, give me peace.

No, god's already given you peace, so you need to let the peace Jesus said in John 14, verse one.

He said let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

So we can either let it or not let it.

So your peace, the peace in your mind, really comes from your spirit.

It comes from your spirit, it's a spiritual force, but it affects your mind or your soul.

So we have a choice to make, then, and it gets down to making the choice to either let or not let.

And it gets down to making the choice to either let or not let.

And in verse 27, chapter 14, he said that he left his peace and gave it to us.

Not the peace the world gives, do I give you.

So then, if he gave it, we receive it.

Then we have to let it rule, we have to let it do its job.

So in Galatians 5.22, we find that the peace of God is really a fruit of the recreated human spirit.

It came when you were born again, one of the characteristics of your own spirit was the peace of God.

So it's in there, but as a fruit of the spirit it can grow, it can become more and more dominant.

And so tonight we're going to talk about some things that will help you to dominate your mind with your spirit's peace.

And so let peace rule.

I just like that.

It says, you know, let it act as an umpire, continually deciding and settling with finality all the questions that arise in your hearts.

I mean, you know that's what the devil does.

The devil throws questions.

He throws, he throws doubt at you into your mind.

He can't touch your spirit, but he can touch your mind.

Can't touch your spirit, but he can touch your mind.

He can suggest thoughts and you can get so overwhelmed with fearsome thoughts, fearful thoughts and so forth and so on, and get you confused.

And of course he wants to lead you away from all the questions being answered, I mean with finality.

You know, when you've got the peace of God ruling in your spirit, then it will come into your mind and it will actually, in Philippians 4, 7, the peace of God will garrison and mount guard over your heart and your mind, in Christ Jesus.

So you know again, your spirit is becoming dominant over your mind and really, it's really what the Bible calls being spiritually minded is life and peace, paul said.

And so, being spiritually minded, you're letting the peace of God rule and act as an umpire over your thought life.

You know, the devil attacks our peace because that way he can take advantage of that lack of peace, that confusion, and he can get us to accept things that we wouldn't normally accept if we were thinking clearly.

You know, proverbs 4.23 says we must keep our hearts with all diligence, for out of it, that is, out of our spirit, are the issues of life.

One version says it determines the course of our life.

So your spirit, see your spirit, that peace that's a fruit of your spirit.

The more that you exercise these things that I'm going to talk about tonight, the more you practice the Word of God, these things that I'm going to talk about tonight, the more you practice the Word of God, the more you practice ruling in peace, then what happens is you'll begin to dominate your thinking, and now your thinking won't be so confused and fragmented, you'll be able to make a clear decision that's based on the Word of God.

You know, peace, the peace of God, doesn't mean the absence of conflict.

I want to make that point right up front.

I mean you're going to have conflicting thoughts, you're going to have a number of things to sift through in your mind, but rather the peace means the battle of the mind has to be fought and won.

And so let's just confess that tonight, say tonight, I'm deciding that I'm going to fight the fight of peace and win.

See, it's a struggle.

It's a struggle to let or to not let.

See, the devil's trying to get you to not let, but we are determined to let the peace of God rule in our hearts.

So we've got one, two, three, four, five things.

It's a little bit longer.

I like to keep things to three, but let's turn in our Bibles to Philippians four.

They're found here in Philippians, chapter four.

Five things that you must choose to do in order for peace to rule.

Again, it's not a matter of asking god to give you peace.

Oh, god give me peace.

Well, he already did so.

Let's, let's use our authority, let's use the word of god, and let's let's you know, let's be mature.

It takes discipline to do all these things.

That's what we are.

We're disciples, we're disciplined ones.

Amen, right.

So in order to let peace rule, number one on my list here is found in verse four of Philippians four.

It says rejoice in the Lord, always and again I say rejoice.

So, first on the list, choose to rejoice and not whine, not have a pity party.

Choose to rejoice, I like in Psalm 104, 34, it says I will be glad in the Lord.

Gladness is not a feeling.

Gladness is more of a decision.

You can either be glad or sad, or you can be glad or mad.

You can be mad and sad at the same time.

No, you choose to be glad.

And so, you know, let's stir ourselves up to be glad.

You know, anybody can have a pity party, but faith rejoices.

You know your faith knows the outcome.

See so, well, yeah, but I don't feel like.

Well, it's not a feeling.

Again, see, rejoicing is not about feeling.

Gladness is not about feeling.

It's a decision.

It's what you do, it's what you say.

I mean, sometimes you've just got to force a laugh until you actually laugh.

I mean, sometimes you've just got to go, ha, ha, ha.

And you know, if you do that long enough, you'll start chuckling, like I am.

You'll just laugh and go ahead and laugh, you'll turn yourself over and you'll get some joy.

So choose to rejoice and not to whine, have a pity party, and because faith always rejoices.

And then, here in verse five Philippians four Now, these are our five things that we must choose to do.

It says here let your moderation be known unto all men.

The Lord is at hand, or the Lord is near.

You say you know the Lord is near you, or the Lord is near you.

See, you know the Lord is near you.

He's always near you.

Whether you feel him or not, he's near.

I keep telling this story about Thomas the doubter.

You know Thomas wasn't present when the Lord appeared to the apostles.

And then, when they told him, hey, he came.

You know, we saw him.

Oh, I don't believe.

Unless I put my fingers in the nail prints of his hands and put my hand in his side, I will not believe.

And eight days later, jesus came back, looking for Thomas.

He said Thomas, come over here now, put your finger in the holes of my hand, put your hand in my side and be not faithless but believing.

And of course he said oh, oh, my Lord and my God, you know.

And he said Thomas, because you have seen, you have believed.

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

So the Lord isn't, is at hand.

That means the Lord is.

It's not mean doesn't mean he's coming.

It means that he's near, he's right here, he's watching you, he knows what you're going through.

And so let your moderation that word moderation simply means you're unselfish forbearing spirit, and so I look that up in the linguistic key to the Greek New Testament and listen to what it says the word moderation means.

It means means reasonableness in judging.

It signifies a humble, patient steadfastness which is able to submit to injustice, disgrace and maltreatment without hatred and malice, trusting in God in spite of it all.

Now, that's quite something.

So let your reasonableness, let your unselfish forbearing spirit be known unto all.

It ought to be part of your makeup.

It may not be right now, you may not have grown into that, but this is our aim.

If we want peace to rule and act as an umpire, settling all our questions with finality, then we're going to have to learn how to to choose moderation, how to choose the way we react to people who persecute us, people who treat us wrongly.

You're a big old victim running around always feeling like the victim.

You know the devil's working on you.

You know you need to change your attitude about that.

I mean, not everybody's going to love you, not everybody's going to even like you.

I mean, some people are just not going to treat you very well.

You can't just take everything so personal.

Uh, it's called impulse control, and impulse control is really a part of our maturing.

You know, we have to grow into these things.

Maybe you're not where you want to be.

Neither am I.

I'm preaching to myself tonight on a lot of these.

I'm still growing after all these years, and we all ought to be growing in these things.

I like James 119, be swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath.

Sometimes we're the opposite.

We're quick to speak and we're, you know, quick to wrath and we don't really listen.

Somebody's talking and we just they said two words that we didn't like and now we're on the offense.

So you know, let's choose moderation, let's choose our unselfish forbearing spirit.

No matter what we're going through, we can.

We can, we can disagree without being disagreeable.

You know, maybe we don't agree with someone what they're saying, we don't have to agree with what they're saying, but we don't have to be disagreeable.

We can just listen to what they're saying.

Do the best you can see what their point of view, why they're saying what they're saying, and look at, look at their side.

Walk a mile in their shoes, or 10 feet maybe in their shoes.

Maybe that's all you can stand.

But uh, choose moderation, all right, so that's two.

So we choose, uh, to rejoice and we choose moderation.

And the third one here in verse six be careful or be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God.

So choose to pray and not to worry.

Choose to pray and not to worry.

You know, I like the Message Bible in verse 6.

Don't worry about anything, pray about everything.

So when you come up against something and you're tempted to worry, just pray, just pray, you know, make your request known unto God.

What do you want?

What do you want?

What do you need to happen?

A lot of times it's not even so much a matter of praying as it is saying Sometimes we can say some things, we can declare some things, and the main thing is not to worry, don't, you know?

Choose not to worry.

Worry sometimes is nothing but fear.

Worry is nothing but fear in action and God didn't give us a spirit of fear.

So I remember Brother Hagin was a young man.

He was bed-fast and paralyzed for almost two years.

He had a heart condition and blood diseases and so forth and the doctors didn't give him very much time to live and if he lived he wouldn't live long.

And he was a worrier.

He'd worry about storms.

I mean, he'd sit there and be awake all night long If there was a storm.

He lived.

He lived in an area of Texas.

It was near tornado alley.

They have some really bad tornadoes up there where he would group McKinney, texas.

They have some bad tornadoes and he would be worried.

And you know he came across in his Bible that it was a sin to worry.

And he said, lord, I can never, I'll never be able to do what you've said.

If it means not worrying, I don't know how I can be a Christian.

And as soon as he said that and as soon as he thought that, well then he got darkness and he got so discouraged and he kept reading his Bible and he realized, well, no, god wouldn't say this if I wasn't able to not worry.

And he read in there to cast your care on the Lord, for he cares for you, watches over you, 1 Peter.

And so he decided, just all by himself, nobody preaching to him.

He decided you know, lord, I'm just going to cast the whole of my care on you.

I see that worry is sin.

I'm not going to worry another day in my life.

I will never take up a care in my life again.

For this day, once and for all, I cast the whole of my care on you, for you, care for me.

See, that's not something you do every day, that's something you do one time in your life.

And every time you're tempted to have care or fretting or worry, you go back to that decision you made at some point in the past where you cast the whole of your care on him because he cares for you.

There's no point in you, both of you, caring about it.

Nothing can happen to you without God knowing all about it.

See, he's watching over you, he's helping you.

So we have to choose to pray and not to worry.

Pray about everything, don't worry about anything.

And then, along with that, in the last part of that verse 6, it says and be with thanksgiving.

With thanksgiving, see, we're to pray with thanksgiving.

In fact, in Colossians 3.15, it says and be ye thankful, be ye thankful, be continually and habitually thankful.

So we ought to have.

You know, the fourth thing that we have to have in order for us to have peace to rule is we have to have that attitude of gratitude.

I mean, you know, when you're thankful all the time, you're not thankful for the trouble, you're thankful in the trouble, you're thankful during the trouble.

Why are you thankful?

Because you know it's going to need, is there, has an end.

You know that there's a way of escape.

You're thankful.

You know that God is working behind the scenes for you See that when you've got that gratitude, when you've got that thanksgiving working in your life, praise and thanksgiving all the time, listen, I'm telling you, it makes it easier for God's peace to rise up and mount guard over your heart and mind and it acts as an umpire, settling with finality Every question that you might have.

I mean, all those questions just dissolve when the peace of God is ruling over you.

So an attitude of gratitude.

So let's look back over it here.

Number one choose to rejoice and not to whine and complain.

Number two choose moderation.

Let's have a forbearing, unselfish spirit.

When people don't treat you right, don't just fly off the handle, just be patient with them, love them back.

Number three choose to pray and not to worry.

And number four choose an attitude of gratitude.

See all the choices you have to make.

I mean that's why it's kind of silly just to pray for peace when there's so many choices that you've got to make.

You've got a whole series of choices that you've got to make.

You've got a whole series of choices that you've got to come up with and choose.

And so the last one here and you know, thinking about this, grateful before I leave that gratitude.

I've thought about this for many years.

But when Paul and Silas were beaten with many stripes, they were sent to Macedonia to help the Macedonian man.

So they were in the will of God.

But they were persecuted, they were lied about, they were beaten with many stripes, thrown in the inner prison and their feet and hands just locked up in the stocks.

And at midnight the Bible says there at midnight, acts 16, at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises and the prisoners heard them.

So you just think about that.

I mean you know their backs hurt, you know their feet hurt, you know everything hurt.

I mean you're beaten with many stripes, you've got to have a lot of pain, you've got to be kind of, you know, tempted to be demoralized.

And yet they prayed and they sang praises so loud.

All the other prisoners heard them and of course, the devil tried to kill them with an earthquake and God invaded the earthquake and broke them out of prison.

But there's an example, see, of being grateful, being thankful.

Were they thankful for the stripes?

No, were they thankful they were locked up?

No, they were thankful that God heard them and God was intervening for them.

And they didn't see any evidence of it yet, but that didn't stop them from praising God so loud that all the prisoners heard them.

Praise God, all right.

So praise God, all right.

So we're talking about, you know, allowing peace to rule.

Let peace rule.

And the last one I want to share with you is found in verse 8.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things and those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me.

Do, and the God of peace shall be with you.

So the last thing that you have to choose is you have to choose what you think about, and this takes a lot of discipline because, you know, we all come into the kingdom of God with certain habits.

We have a negative mindset.

That's the reason why we have to renew our minds to the Word of God.

You're programmed negatively, and when you come into the kingdom of God, your spirit is saved, but your mind is still not renewed.

It's unrenewed, and so you have to work on this.

These are something that you make progress on, hopefully all your life.

You work on disciplining your thought life, and this tells you what you should think about.

Your thoughts have to be true, and just Sometimes, some thoughts are true, but they're not lovely, you know.

It might, you know, to think about someone's faults over here.

It might be true, they might have this fault, and you're meditating on their fault.

Well, see, that's not something you need to think about.

See, it's true, but it's not just true, true, just pure lovely.

If there's a good report, let's think about the good reports we've received.

Let's think about somebody got a victory.

Maybe you got a victory.

Think about the victory you received.

Maybe you have to go back in history, I'll tell you.

I've been through some tough times where I had to just sit under a tree or get outside and sit on a patio furniture and get me a cup of coffee.

And I'd go back in my life.

Things were so bad.

Where I was right that moment I had such a challenge ahead of me I had things were working against me.

I'd have to go back and think about all the good things God had done years before.

I'd just start thinking about those things.

I'd get my mind off my trouble and I'd start thinking about all the good things God had done for me and pretty soon I had some peace and then I could attack whatever it was in front of me.

With the right kind of prayer, I could find out what does God's Word say about this problem that I'm facing?

I could gain God's wisdom about what to do about it.

Many times these were business decisions I needed to make.

Maybe I needed to make a decision.

Maybe I had an unhappy customer and I'm dreading having to go talk to them about their trouble and so forth and so on.

There's all kinds of things you have to deal with in life and you can deal with them when you have the peace of God that rules in your heart and your mind and it settles with finality all the questions that arise, praise God.

And so you think on the right things, you think properly, you start to discipline your thought life Because if you don't see again, the battle is in the mind and you have to decide.

I'm going to fight that battle and win it in order for the peace to rule, because I'm going to let peace rule in my heart, in my mind.

So now, when you begin to make those decisions and you start deciding to hold your thought life accountable, you start saying no, I'm not thinking about that, that thought does not need to be in my mind.

I take the name In the name of Jesus.

You leave me, devil.

I'm not thinking about that, I'm thinking about this right here.

You have the discipline to do that.

Now you're winning the battle of the mind.

Discipline to do that.

Now you're winning the battle of the mind.

You're beginning to See, you're beginning to, and now peace is beginning to rule in your heart and all your questions are beginning.

See, you're beginning.

It's not over with, but you're beginning.

You have to begin something somewhere, sometime, change the way that you've been operating.

So now you're beginning to have peace rule in your heart.

All your questions are beginning to be decided and settled with finality.

You're beginning to let peace rule.

Come on, lift your hands and receive.

Praise God, be encouraged tonight and I tell you you can have peace right in the middle of the storm.

You can have peace right in the middle of all kinds of crazy things that are going on in the world today, and peace belongs to you, the peace that passes all understanding.

Praise God.