Let Peace Rule

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

You don't have your Bible right there with you.

Well, get it real quick, because you need to follow along.

And let's say this together Say, heavenly Father, I've tuned in tonight to live stream because I desire more, more of your presence, more of the Word of God.

I want my faith to grow so that victory can be assured in every circumstance of life.

In Jesus' name, amen, amen, all right.

Now let's look in our bibles, at Colossians, chapter three, please, and we'll read first of all out of the King James and then I'll read out of the Amplified, colossians 315.

And it says and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also you were called in one body, and be ye thankful.

I like the Amplified.

Let's hear the Amplified of the same verse, just one verse Colossians 315, the Amplified.

And let the peace, that is, the soul, harmony which comes from the Christ, rule, that is, act as an umpire continually in your hearts, deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds.

Isn't that good.

And, of course, be ye thankful, be continually thankful.

And so tonight I wanted to share a simple message, but one that's really important.

This message is called let peace rule.

Let peace rule.

Let peace rule as an umpire.

You know tomorrow's opening day of baseball season.

The Astros got their first game tomorrow, and so you know the umpires are shaking off the moth balls out of their uniforms and they're gonna get out on the field.

But you know what?

We have an internal umpire called the peace of God.

And you know Jesus told the disciples in John, chapter 14, one.

John 14 · chapter mention

He said let not your hearts be troubled.

And so that's the same with us.

We have a.

We can either let or lot.

Let.

See, it's our choice.

We can either choose to be troubled or choose to be, to walk in peace.

We have a choice to make.

And you know he said in verse 27,.

He said my peace I leave with you.

My peace I give to you, not as the world gives, give I unto you.

You know the world has a false peace.

You know peace that comes from drugs or alcohol or some other source.

You know we're diverted, diversion.

You know change the subject, you get some kind of a peace.

You know, when you're in turmoil, you change the subject.

But the kind of peace that God gives is supernatural.

In Galatians 522,.

Peace is actually the peace of God, is one of the fruit of the spirit.

And of course the King James capitalize the fruit of the spirit, capital S.

And then, and of course you know, in the Greek there is no no.

In the manuscript there are no punctuation marks, there's no paragraphs and there's no capitalization.

So really I believe it's more accurate the peace of the recreated human spirit we get when we were born again.

We have peace as one of those fruits of the spirit that's given to us, just like love and joy, joy, peace, patience.

We talked about patience on Sunday.

Faith and patience inherits the promises, and so you know, peace, then, is a fruit.

So it's grown and developed.

It's really, oh God, just give me peace.

Well, you know, are you already did?

Are you?

Are you, are you developing that fruit?

See, you know gifts are given, fruit is grown, and so no wonder the devil attacks our peace and we live in a very stressful world, especially now.

And always remember God chose you to live right now.

So you have a, you have a grace that you can tap into by faith, to to have the peace of God during all of these tumultuous events.

I mean, you can not read the headlines you cannot listen even to accurate.

You know there are some outlets that are pretty accurate as to their reporting and even when you listen to those there's just a lot of attacks on your peace.

I mean just going to the grocery store or to the gas station that can attack your peace pretty quickly.

You know when you, when you see how much prices have risen.

But I like Philippians four, seven, let's turn over there real quick.

Philippians just write a couple of pages right before the verse we just saw.

It says and the peace of God which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

The peace of God which passes all understanding.

In other words, we can have such peace that people look at us and say how in the world can you be so peaceful during all this commotion?

And I like the amplified.

Again it says the peace of God will garrison and mount guard over your heart and mind through Christ Jesus.

Garrison and mount guard.

In other words, it's like a fortress around your mind and your heart.

No, proverbs 4.23 says you must keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.

I like this, I like this version.

Out of it determines the course of your life.

So you ought to guard your heart.

How can you guard it?

By choosing to walk in peace, the peace of God.

Let peace rule.

That's what we're talking about tonight.

Let the peace of God rule in your heart.

And of course, when it says let, it means we can choose not to let you know.

It's really our choice, we have a choice to make.

And so one other point I wanna make that peace does not mean the absence of conflict.

No, on the contrary, we can have peace during the conflict.

You know, peace is just not when everything's wonderful.

You can have peace right in the middle of the storm.

And so the battle of the mind must be fought and it must be won.

That's where the battle is, right up here, and it must be fought and it must be won.

So let's look at Philippians, chapter four.

We read part of it and let's just read.

In fact, let's just read all four of these verses, starting with verse four, philippians four, four through eight, and we're going to glean some tips on how to let peace rule.

Verse four Philippians four, four rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.

Let your moderation be known unto all men.

The Lord is at hand.

Boy, is he at hand?

He's even closer now than he was.

Be careful for nothing or be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God and the peace of God, there it is, which passeth.

All understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

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.

So out of these five verses, we are able to get five steps, as it were, in order to let peace rule.

I mean, all we have to do is be a doer of the word amen.

And so the first one on the list, verse four.

It says rejoice.

So choose to rejoice and not whine.

It's a choice.

You know I like Psalm 104-34, I will be glad in the Lord.

Notice it says I will be glad.

In other words, it's up to you to be glad or not be glad.

You know you can be glad in the same bridge as you got mad in or got sad.

In either way, you know you can get glad.

You can be glad.

It's your will, it's your choice.

Be glad.

Psalm 40-16, very much the same Psalm 31-7, psalm 9-2.

The Psalms are full of challenges and telling us to be glad in the Lord.

You know, anybody can have a pity party, amen.

But faith rejoices.

So if we want peace to rule, we have to make a decision that we're gonna rejoice, no matter what I said this Sunday morning.

We're talking about Smith Wigglesworth.

He started his day off every day and even in his 80s he would get up out of bed and dance and shout before the Lord for 20 minutes.

He would jump, he would twirl, he would run around his home.

A man in his 80s, you know.

He made it a point to rejoice every day.

Then he'd pray an hour, then he'd read his Bible an hour, then he would look at his correspondence, see what his day was gonna be like.

So choose to rejoice.

And then in verse five it says let your moderation be known unto all.

So choose moderation.

Now, moderation when you look it up in the Greek it means you're unselfish, forbearing spirit.

I've been mentioned lately and I've done this over the many years the linguistic key to the Greek New Testament.

You know it might be good to write that down linguistic key to the Greek New Testament, and I bought mine on Amazon.

I don't know if they still sell it or not, but it is a book about this thick, it's a small book and it is written by Greek scholars and it's an adjunct.

It helps you, along with your concordance.

So you know you should be doing some word studies from time to time.

When you see a word in the King James, especially when you see a word and you're not familiar exactly what it means, it's good to look it up.

And you can look up that chapter in verse and you can look up that word.

And so when you look up what it says about moderation, listen to what the linguistic key to the Greek New Testament says.

It means reasonableness in judging.

It signifies humble, patient steadfastness which is able to submit to injustice, disgrace and maltreatment.

Boy, does that sound like right now, without hatred or malice, trusting in God in spite of it all?

Oh, it means you're just a doormat.

No, it doesn't mean that you're a doormat.

It just means that when people attack you, you don't pick up the sword and start picking up that spirit and trying to attack back you.

Just, you attack in a different way, because it's not them that's attacking you anyway.

You gotta know who your enemy is.

We wrestle, not against flesh and blood.

So the word moderation, let your moderation be known under all men.

You ought to have impulse control.

That's another good way to say this whole thing.

Everybody say out loud impulse control.

You know, little children don't have that.

You know little children, they get excited or they get mad.

Somebody sent me a video of a child that said you're hungry and you're still mad.

But the little kid was really mad and he was still had a scowl on his face, but he was picking up all the food off his plate and eating it and every now and then he'd kinda make a little noise.

You know, the whole time he was eating he was mad.

So he's still.

His mad impulse was overcome by his hunger impulse.

But anyway, let's control our emotions.

When we're under attack it doesn't do any good.

Flouff the handle and I'm preaching to myself.

Now I've been.

You know, recently I got an email that just really got all over me and I just didn't like it.

And before I could get very far, I said I'm gonna, I'm not gonna answer this, I'm gonna pray about this.

And so the next one is to choose to pray and not to worry or not to fret.

Choose to pray verse six be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, let your request be made known unto God.

So, instead of going off on a tangent, instead of getting all upset and railing, I just started praying and pretty soon I just started saying you know, I wasn't even asking God, I was just declaring well, you know, the Holy Ghost has got this.

The greater one in me is gonna put me over in this situation.

None of this is true, all these are lies.

I don't accept any of this in Jesus' name.

And then, you know, you just choose to pray and not fret or get up anxious or upset.

See, we're talking about letting peace rule.

Well, once you've let your anger or your sadness or whatever emotion it is go too far, you know, then you're gonna lose your peace.

And again, what are we supposed to do?

Well, we're supposed to keep our peace and let it rise up and mount guard over our heart and mind, because that's determining the course of our lives.

Our heart is.

We're not ready with all diligence.

So choose to pray and not to worry.

I like the message Bible that says don't worry about anything, pray about everything.

Did you know?

Worries are sin and you can't find more worry and fear than there is in the world today.

I mean, the world is worried.

They're fearful.

You know, the mask rules are being relaxed.

I heard somebody went to Methodist Hospital the other day and said oh, you don't have to wear your mask, you can choose to wear it or not wear it.

So even hospitals now are starting to relax the mandates.

Hospitals or hospitalizations are down to pre 2020 levels and so forth.

So there's no more emergency.

Never was an emergency, if you ask me.

But anyway, none of these people want to give up their emergency powers.

By the way, they are too.

They love power, so they don't give up.

Once they take power, they don't give it back.

But, um, people, the fear is still in the world.

And you know I don't know if you've noticed that even local television stations they've switched over from covering COVID on a breathless every day.

Oh, how many people have died?

And they don't tell you the percentages.

But the percentages are 0.05 or 0.09%.

They're almost minuscule.

Not that death doesn't matter, but it's on a percentage basis.

It's very tiny.

What are they doing?

They're just adding to this narrative of fear.

So they've moved away from COVID and they've turned all their guns on Ukraine.

So every day we have a refugee from Ukraine, a refugee of their terrible plight, of how they had to leave the country.

And here they are and I thought how'd they get to America?

They must not be broke.

How did they fly here?

How are they living here?

You know, it's a good question.

I always want to ask more questions than the reporter does.

But they want us to focus on World War III.

They want us to focus on all of the atrocities and I'm not doubting that they occurred but I'm telling you they're more serious things that we ought to be thinking about right now.

Amen.

So let's not worry about anything, let's pray about everything.

That's the point, verse six.

That's the third way to let peace rule.

And then it says and be you thankful, see, let your request be made known unto God, and be thankful.

In other words, with thanksgiving, let's not forget about the thanksgiving part.

So that night I was talking about with that email and I got aggravated.

I just started praising God.

I started thanking God, wow.

Well, because I've learned that it's a dead end to get all emotional about anything.

I catch myself.

Sometimes I catch myself early and sometimes it's a little bit later, but eventually I will catch myself and the main thing is to improve on these things.

Let's get more mature, let's have impulse control.

Let's not let our emotions run away.

You know, moses is one who let his emotions run away with him and it cost him going into his inheritance.

He did not get to go into the promised land.

He taught that second generation all about it.

He taught them how it was gonna be, but God wouldn't let him go in.

Why?

Because he lost his temper and struck the rock the second time and violated a major type and shadow that Jesus was struck once for our sins.

And when he struck that rock, the rock stood for Christ.

When he struck the rock, instead of speaking to the rock, he violated a major type and shadow that God wanted to preserve for the Jewish people over their Messiah and he violated that because of his temper.

He got mad and he struck the rock in anger and God and he prayed about it many times oh God, I've forgiven you, but you're not going in.

You're gonna have to stay outside the promised land.

He never got to go in.

He died outside the promised land.

So it was.

I'm not saying that God's gonna punish you.

I'm saying, though, that your temper or your lack of impulse control can cost you, because you opened the door to Satan to steal some of your destiny, steal some of your inheritance.

Let's do what the Word says to do.

Let's be doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving ourselves.

So have an attitude of gratitude.

Colossians 3 15 says and be you thankful, be being thankful.

See, it's the same idea of be being filled.

Be continually and habitually thankful.

Just be in a habit of being thankful.

Not thankful for the trouble, but thankful in the middle of the trouble.

Thankful that you've got the way out, thankful that you've got the helper, thankful that you have the advocate, thankful that you have wisdom on the inside of you.

Amen, you have the answer to every trouble.

So choose an attitude of gratitude.

All of these things have to do with choosing.

You can either choose to let or choose not to let.

So so that's the.

That's the thing.

The battle is in the mind and impulse control.

So let's look at it again.

So we, we choose to rejoice, we choose to be, have an unselfish and forbearing spirit that, even when people are persecuting us, we don't.

We practice impulse control and and we don't return bad feelings with hatred and malice.

That doesn't mean we're a doormat, doesn't mean that we just let people run over us.

No, that's the same thing.

It's just that you don't.

You don't enter into the spirit that's attacking you.

Number three you choose to pray and not to worry.

And number four, you choose an attitude of gratitude.

And the last one is one that takes a lot of discipline, and that's what a disciple is a disciplined one.

Choose what you think about.

Verse eight, chapter four.

Philippians tells us what to think about.

And so he said what so ever things are true.

Now notice how it's written in the King James, notice these, these repetitions.

That says what's over things, what's over things, what's over things.

I mean, hey, hello, I got it.

I got it.

No, you didn't get it.

So that's why I said it that way.

What's so ever things?

What's so ever things?

What's so ever things are true, what's so ever things are honest, my barge and says venerable.

See, something can be honest, something can be true, but it's not pure, it's not lovely.

I mean, it may be, it may be honest, it may be true that someone is a rascal, but you don't think about them as a rascal.

You don't think about that.

That's not what you're to think about.

You're you're to think of, you're gonna.

If you think about someone, some person, you ought to be thinking about what quality of life that they have Everybody's got.

You know something you know like the old joke, you know.

You sure you know, for a fat lady you sure don't sweat much.

You know, that's an old joke that I heard when I was in grade school.

Probably shouldn't have said that joke, but anyway, listen, you can always come up with something that's both true and venerable and and lovely, a lovely thing.

So whatsoever, things are just what things are, pure and lovely of good report.

If you've got a good report, think on the good report.

I heard a good report for the for the before we started tonight and I just leaped for joy.

I'm, I'm praising God because it was a good report.

I love good reports.

A good report make it the bones fat.

I ought to have the fattest bones of anybody, cause I hear lots of good reports.

If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things.

So it gives you a guide about what your thought life should be about, and that would would give you some ways that you can edit.

You need to edit your thought life Sometimes that thoughts come into your mind that didn't come from you, they came from outside, and a lot of times the devil will throw a thought at you and see if you'll meditate on this next day.

Negative, terrible thought I've had people think about dying and they and then they think about dying so much that they start brother Hagin talks about that when he was bed, bed fast, and and people said he couldn't live and and he said I visualized the funeral, I, I visualized myself dying, I visualized all the feeling leaving my body.

I visualized going to the funeral home being laid in the casket, the casket being shut on me, riding in the hearse, going all the way to the graveyard, lowering me down in the ground, throwing the dirt.

I mean, he visualized every bit of that.

You know it was definitely not something that God authored for him to think of.

See, the devil wanted him to think of death.

The devil wanted him to release his, his, his hold on this life.

And just think how much poorer the church would be if brother Hagin had never lived to teach faith.

If he had died as a teenager without all that revelation, oh well, somebody else would have.

Well, I don't know when it would have happened.

I mean, we don't have any idea about those kinds of things, we can't make that statement.

And so I just think about, uh, that our fathers of the faith have learned these things and have talked them to us, uh, out of the Bible, so we can choose what we think about, and uh, and so now, when you've done all five of these things, now you're winning the battle of the mind, and peice is truly beginning to rule in your heart and all your questions are big, beginning.

Say it's not instant, but your questions that you have are beginning to be decided and settled with finality and you can put a lock on it.

You can do it and you can put a lock on it.

You can shut the door and say that's a lead pipe cinch, that's a done deal.

I know that that's settled right there, because the peace of God is ruling in your heart.

Come on, lift your hands and receive.

Let peace rule.

Praise God.

I trust you got something out of the word tonight.

Let's be doers of the word and not heroes only.

James 1, 22,.

Deceiving ourselves, hey Ben.