SUMMER TOGETHER | Part 3 | Real Peace

Hey, welcome to Grace Summit Church

podcast. We're so glad you're here.

Heat. Heat. N.

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>> Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Man, you guys awake today?

>> Three of you are. Praise the Lord. Hey,

it's good to be back in the house of

God.

>> Amen. my uh family and I, we had family

vacation last week and and uh we were up

in way up in northern Michigan and then

in and uh Rockford, Michigan. We went to

church at a uh new church for us, kind

of some friends of ours and uh really

fun as a pastor to just go and sit and

enjoy it and not have to do anything. Um

so that was fun. So, but good to be back

home. If you're a first- time guest with

us, my name is Ben. I have the

opportunity to serve as lead pastor

here. And we're going to get into the

word of God. Before we do, I want to

share something. I was watching this uh

reel on Instagram

uh actually earlier today and uh it's

interesting because uh he's being

incredibly critical of raising money for

a church building and uh he's just kind

of like un unloading in this in this

church reel, this Instagram reel, and

he's saying, "Man, people are raising

$3.1 million for a brick and mortar and

how is that way? we we could use that

money for the poor and all this stuff's

going on ran and he compares it to it to

being Judas, right? So, I'm slightly

taking offense as as I'm listening to

this and I go to the very first comment.

There's a kind of become more popular

pastor. His name is Josh Howton. If you

don't follow him, uh follow him because

he's amazing. But I want to read his

post to you and I'm bringing this up

just because we've been kind of in this

campaign season for a while. He says

this. He says, "A church building is

probably the single greatest long-term

investment in the kingdom of God a

generation of church members can make.

It establishes a long-term beach head

for the advance of the gospel in a

region unlike anything else. And the

people who sacrifice to do it are doing

something that will be a huge part of

reaching their own children and

grandchildren." Isn't that amazing?

That's powerful stuff. I got to hand

this off otherwise I'll get distracted

with notifications.

>> But man, I just want to say thank you. I

know a majority of people in this church

have made an investment uh in the

expansion of the kingdom of God, what

God's doing here, and we're excited just

to keep that moving forward. If you

haven't uh participated in that, pray

about it. See what God would have you to

do. This is my belief that the

investment we make now, when we get to

heaven, we're going to see souls for

generations that were impacted that made

it into heaven because we were able to

build something for the kingdom of God

here. Amen.

All right, I'm going to preach. Is that

okay?

>> Praise the Lord. Uh

>> my thing, stick with me. Okay.

Hallelujah. Hey, if you're online with

us, let's everyone give the online a

shout out. Say, "Amen."

>> Amen.

>> We're glad you're here. Um, I want to

pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for

revival stirring on the inside of us.

Uh, Father, I'm thankful today that,

Lord, that you provide

mana from heaven. Lord, we don't live by

bread alone, but every word that

proceeds from your mouth. And so Lord, I

thank you for providing your word to

your people on this day. So Lord, I

thank you for the anointing that breaks

the yoke of bondage upon this word that

you're releasing to us. We receive it

now in Jesus name. Amen.

>> Matthew 5 and verse 9, uh Jesus says

this. He says, "Blessed are the

peacemakers,

for they shall be called sons of God."

This is the foundation of our

conversation uh this morning is being

peacemakers. I want to talk about peace.

But before I do, I want to talk about uh

the placebo effect. You guys familiar

with this in the medical world? It's

always uh kind of uh it's interesting to

me that they can do these studies and

put people in a room and and uh they'll

give individual I think it's like a

sugar pill. There's nothing in it,

right? Other than sugar. Uh and they'll

give them this pill and then they'll

give a different group the actual new

painkiller, right? And people from the

sugar pill group will actually report,

man, my pain is going away because they

were told that it was this amazing, you

know, uh, new medical breakthrough pill

that's going to remove their pain. And

isn't it interesting how our mind can

play games on us like that? It's the

placebo effect. Uh, nothing chemically

happened in their body, but somehow

their pain goes away. How does that

happen?

uh doctors have studied it, studied it

for decades and uh they have some ideas

but they can't really uh seem to fully

explain it. And the person sharing that

hey my pain went away uh they're not

lying.

It's not fake. They had an authentic

experience

right where their symptoms

uh were either lessened or completely

went away because they took a sugar

pill. they believe something. Um, that

should scare us a little bit. Amen. That

should that makes me a little

uncomfortable about the power of my mind

and how I can be manipulated or tricked

so easily.

uh

the placebo effect. The problem that

I've seen is that sometimes uh we live

placebo lifestyles

particularly what we're going to talk

about today particularly as it pertains

to peace.

Uh I think we're all guilty of it.

Someone asked me you're having a rough

day right going through it and maybe

you're wearing your emotions on your

face a little bit or your pain on your

face and and people say man what's going

on with you? What's wrong with you? I'm

fine. We all guilty of that. You guys

done it. I'm good. I'm good. You just

kind of You don't want to You don't want

to go there. You don't want to talk. You

don't want to unpack this this thing.

Then so we just say we're fine.

Sometimes uh we do it in marriage,

right? Uh we do it on Instagram.

How about this? You take the family

picture, right? Every Okay. You guys

know, it's one of the things I'm not a

fan of. Everybody get over there and

smile and we all have to fake smile and

like you move in a little bit closer and

like this whole thing, right? And so you

get the family picture and everyone's

smiling. It looks so beautiful. You post

it and everything looks great. And if

you ever uh realize that some of those

pictures that were taken are completely

fake because there was drama and chaos

and dissension going on in the family.

It's a placebo effect of peace. Amen.

picture looks great, but nothing

changed. It's a false

uh example of peace.

Here's the truth about placeos.

They treat the belief of the symptom,

not the disease.

They make you feel like the problem is

handled. And a lot of times in that

placebo effect, uh you stop looking for

a real cure.

Uh think about those controlled studies

if they just kept giving them the sugar

pill, right? Uh over time uh nothing got

cured, nothing got healed in them,

right? And so it would just come back.

The pain or whatever it was would come

back. That's exactly what fake peace

looks like.

You know, we have this kind of issue, I

think, in this culture that we want

everything to be just okay.

Everything's fine. And we don't lie on

purpose about fake peace.

And here's the reality. Sometimes it

actually works,

but it's temporary.

Sometimes it's just emotional. And it's

enough to convince us to not seek out

real peace.

Can I say this? Jesus didn't come to

give us a placebo of peace. Jesus Christ

came that we would have authentic peace

dwelling on the inside of us.

And I've got to say this, he didn't come

to make you feel better.

He came to deal with real pain on the

inside of us. Amen. How many know that

we have real pain?

uh peace uh doesn't always look like

what we classify as peace. Jesus is

given the title prince of peace. You

guys ever heard him called that? And

this prince of peace, we know that peace

is a fruit of the holy spirit, right?

And so under uncction of the spirit, the

prince of peace walks into a temple and

starts flipping over tables. He grabs a

cord and makes a whip out of it and

starts chasing these dudes out of the

temple.

Oh my goodness. Does that sound like

peace?

Can I say this? Uh, sometimes peace

looks different than what we think it

looks like.

Give you a biblical definition of peace.

In the Greek, it has the idea of

wholeness,

meaning that everything is set in right

order,

peace. in creation.

The Bible, when you dig a little bit,

talks about uh that the world was like

chaos. And when you look at the creation

account, it's God putting everything in

right order. Amen.

And that's what Christ does in our life.

He puts everything in right order. The

Hebrew word for peace is shalom. And

it's not quiet,

calm.

It's act it actually means flourishing.

It means that everything is set and

established by God and that life is

happening. Amen.

It's life the way that God designed it.

Uh so this morning I want to kind of

take the lid off a little bit and I want

to challenge us to stop settling for the

sugar pill, the placebo of peace, and

really start to get after it and chase

authentic peace. So I want to give you

five Ps

to real peace.

Five Ps to real peace. Number one is to

perceive fake peace.

To perceive fake peace.

We have to be able to identify where the

enemy is coming to distract us. And the

false substitute. The Bible says the

devil masquerades as an angel of light.

And he will come over and over into your

life with things that have a temporary

type of peace but in the end lead to a

type of destruction or chaos. Amen.

You can write this down if you're taking

notes. Not every calm is from Christ.

Not every calm is from Christ.

Jeremiah chapter 6 is it's an

Jeremiah 6 · chapter mention

interesting portion of scripture. So,

we're seeing uh a people that are in

really imminent imminent danger. Uh

there is real physical crisis pursuing

them. Uh literal invasion and

destruction is knocking at their door.

And the culture has a lot of false

prophets, right? It's these devils

masquerading as uh as angels. And uh

these false prophets, the people are

they're a little uh you know, caught off

guard, man. There were there's invasion,

there's destruction, all this stuff. And

the false prophets uh keep speaking a

false type of peace to them, saying,

"Hey, everything's going to be okay.

Everything's going to be just fine."

When it's actually not. God speaks to

the prophet Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 6:14. This is what God speaks.

Jeremiah 6:14

They have healed the wound of my people

lightly saying peace. Peace when there

is no peace.

Say placebo.

They're preaching comfort where God is

calling for repentance.

Amen.

It's kind of like putting a band-aid on

a tumor

and and and uh somebody putting a

band-aid on and saying everything's

going to be just fine. Everything's

going to be good. Right? You might

believe it for a minute, but it doesn't

solve the issue. It doesn't heal the

disease.

You don't need a band-aid. You need a

surgeon.

My goodness.

Sometimes

I do pastoral counseling and just having

conversations with different ones and

that feels like I got to bring a pry bar

to the conversation,

right? Well, how are things actually?

I'm ready to get to business, man. Let's

talk about it, right? Let's go there.

Uh, let's deal with the hard stuff. How

is everything in your marriage? It's

fine. How's everything in your finances?

It's okay. How's everything you just and

every I'm like, well, why are we meeting

then? Why were you so desperate to meet

with me if everything's fine and okay

and good and dandy and neat and and you

know what is and so I got to dig a

little bit. And too often we carry that

in our Christian lifestyle,

right? Everything's fine. We got this,

man. The destruction's coming. Chaos is

coming. The enem is coming at every

angle and we're fine. I'm okay. And

we're carrying this weight that you were

never designed to carry.

Man, y'all are way too quiet. I'm going

to start bringing a Nerf gun to church.

Start shooting folks.

Maybe a squirt gun. It's hot enough out

lens. We can we can get squirt guns. I

want I want the big super soakers.

Every time that

we make that confession, I'm fine.

When you're actually not, it's a type of

placebo peace. I'm not going to go

there. I'm not I don't want to deal with

it. I don't want to talk about it. You

have hidden sin. You have abuse. You

have pain. You have addiction. Whatever

that thing is, but you're okay.

We have to get to the place to recognize

fake peace, to deny fake peace, and to

be brutally honest about where we're at

and who we actually are. If we're really

going to find true peace,

sometimes we run to things that we think

will bring us peace, different comforts.

Man, I know uh scrolling is a bit of an

issue these days, right? You ever uh use

it as a distraction, like you got all

the stuff, all the thing, all the

pressures, all the and all of a sudden

you're sucked into scrolling

for an hour.

Okay, confession time. Five hours.

Okay. Uh, 7 hours. Have you guys ever

done the thing where you get back in

your phone and you see how many how much

time you spend on a specific app? Oh,

don't. It's dangerous. Yeah. I'm like,

how long did I sit and spend doing

absolutely ridiculous nothing? My little

thumbs all wore out.

Yeah. Distraction

from what's actually happening.

It's like taking a fake sugar pill and

calling it a solution. You can put this

in your notes. Distraction is not

disciplehip.

Oh my goodness. That'll preach right

there. Distraction is not disciplehip.

Uh in the Bible, you'll read about a

prophet named Jonah, a man named Jonah.

Um interesting guy. God gives him this

specific assignment and really has a

blessing with this assignment. And Jonah

runs the exact opposite direction. Says,

"I ain't doing that."

Anyone in here ever done that? Y'all way

too holy on me this morning.

>> Yeah. God's saying, "This is what you

need to do." And you're like, "Uh-uh,

check, please. I'm out." And that's what

Jonah's doing. Uh he's running away from

the assignment, running away from the

obedience. He's on a boat and uh this

storm comes up and really he he's the

one that caused the storm, right? And

Jonah uh is sleeping.

in the boat,

falls fast asleep

during the storm. And I'm guessing uh it

was a false type of peace that he felt

because he was running from the

assignment, the thing that he didn't

want to do. And Jonah felt a type of

relief.

Uh if you ask Jonah, he'd probably

hyperspiritualize it and say, "I have

peace about that."

Yeah. this nap. I'm going to go take a

nap. Storm's going. I have peace about

not going to Nineveh. I have peace about

that.

How many of us do that? God's saying,

"This is what you got to do. This is who

you need to talk to. This is what you

need to all this stuff." And I'm like,

"I'm not having that conversation."

Right? And we bail. Well, I'm running

the other direction. I don't want

anything to do with that. And we get

over here and we have this false sense

of peace. I have peace about that. that

we never dealt with the issue. Oh my

goodness.

It wasn't peace. It was relief from

responsibility disguised as peace. We're

talking about a placebo effect of peace.

Relief is not peace.

Here's the test that we want to use. If

the peace that you feel is on the other

side of running from God, it's not

peace. It's escape.

Some of y'all need to be taking notes,

man. I'm preaching to you.

Why do we call it peace? I over the

years in ministry, I've watched so many

people walk away from exactly what God

has for them

and they report a sense of peace because

they're no longer under the pressure of

the thing, right?

they step out of ministry or they step

out of this or they don't do that. Some

been had several that we've counseledled

and my wife and I man we've poured into

them and loved them, worked on their

marriage, helped them and one person

just gives up and does the divorce then

they talk about I have peace about that.

What you're in covenant relationship

and you have no biblical grounds for

divorce and you have peace. Oh my I just

felt some toes go

How do you have peace about running from

God's will for your life? Sometimes it

is genuine freedom, you know, from toxic

or sinful situations. And praise God

that people get out of that. But

sometimes, if we're honest, it's just

Jonah sleeping in the boat saying, "I

feel fine. I'm good to go."

Fake peace is when relief replaces

repentance.

Paul the Apostle gives a warning to

those in the last days. 1 Thessalonians

5, he says, "While people are saying

peace and security, sudden destruction

will come upon them."

Man, we're Americans. We have our peace

a lot of times on all the wrong things.

Bank accounts, politics, good health,

right? Uh man, we we fight we fight for

uh the a type of peace that the world

says, man, if I could just if I could

just get that uh uh get that lake

property, boy, that'd really bring peace

to my life. If I could just get that new

vehicle, I wouldn't have to worry about

this. If I could just not have any debt,

I could have peace. And we go through

all these things. Then how many of us

have lived long enough to get chase

those things and get those things? Then

you're standing in the place that you

thought would bring you peace and you

still are you and you don't have the

peace that you hoped you'd have. Good

for a little bit.

But true peace is on the inside.

Worldly fake peace is when we build our

calm

on circumstances instead of Christ. The

Bible says to not love the world or the

things in the world.

That false peace can feel

very real

until circumstances change

till things collapse.

We find out that it was never really

anchored in Christ.

So not every calm is from Christ.

Distraction is not disciplehip. I want

to say this, fake peace is dangerous.

So where in the world do we find the

real thing?

How do we know for sure that we've got

the real thing? Number two in your notes

is pursue peace with God.

Pursue peace

with God. 1 Peter 3:11

1 Peter 3:11

says they must not I'm sorry. They must

turn from evil and do good. They must

seek peace and pursue it.

Seek peace

and pursue it.

Here's the truth that changes everything

in your life. Real peace isn't a

circumstance. It's a person.

I call him Jesus. Amen.

>> Real peace has very little to do with

circumstances of life. It has everything

to do with who you're doing this life

with. Are you doing it with Jesus?

H we don't find real peace by managing

our emotions better,

organizing our schedule better,

right?

By positive thinking. Just positive

thinking. That tastes that sounds like

taking a sugar pill and thinking

everything's all right.

We seek Jesus. One of the things I love

about the Bible is how brutally honest

it is about who we were before we

received Jesus.

The Bible says Romans 5:10 that we were

Romans 5:10

uh enemies of God. We like to think

that, you know, life was pretty good and

then I started going to church and I

prayed the prayer and life's a little

bit better now because I just I had some

stuff that I hadn't worked, you know,

and I'm so I'm so thankful for my church

community.

I live in America, man. I I've watched

the church make a radical shift away

from we were enemies with God. We were

at odds with a loving God. We were at

war with God. Everything about us, my

righteousness was as a filthy rags. And

and the blood of Jesus Christ reconciled

me to a loving father. I was in

hostility with God. Amen. And I needed a

savior. I needed redemption. Somehow

through the blood of Jesus Christ, I am

now at peace with the father. And the

father is at peace with me.

I need peace. Romans 5'8 says, "While we

were still sinners, Christ died for us."

We weren't really seeking after him. He

was seeking after us while we were still

sinners. Colossians 1:20

Colossians 1:20

says, "Having made peace through the

blood of his cross,

Jesus Christ is the one that took the

hostility. He took the rebellion. He

took the record of wrongs for us and he

demolished it hanging on a bloodstained

cross." Amen. That's how we get peace

with God. Sometimes we'll get in a

position that we understand that at

salvation, but we'll live our life and

all of a sudden 20 years of serving God

and we're now experiencing a type of

anxiety, a type of fear, a type of

worry. And what we don't do is do the

same thing that saved our soul in this

moment and run it through the blood.

Amen. And by running it through the

blood, what I mean is agreeing with the

price that was paid. I don't have to I

don't have to have this anxiety, this

fear, this worry because it was bought

and paid for and nailed on a blood

stained cross. Amen.

You can't manufacture peace by cleaning

yourself up.

You receive it by trusting in the

finished work of Jesus Christ. And once

you have that peace with God, there's a

new problem that I found. Keeping it.

Amen.

Keeping the peace.

Number three in your notes is protect

inner peace.

Protect inner peace.

I got to tell you, getting peace is just

the beginning.

We have a very real enemy

of our soul seeking to steal, kill, and

destroy.

And honestly,

the enemy often times is our own flesh.

Amen.

Trying to steal your peace. And I'll say

this every single day.

There's a potential the enemy is trying

to steal your peace. Now, why would the

devil be so adamant about trying to

steal your peace? Could it be one of the

more valuable things in the kingdom of

God in the life of a believer

that I'm at peace? That I have God's

peace in the midst of chaos, in the

midst of the storm, when the

circumstances doesn't go my way. Amen.

I have peace

when the diagnosis comes.

when

the devastation falls, when all somehow

I have peace, right? And we'll forfeit

our peace for some of the most

ridiculous things.

Uh a person sitting in a green light

instead of going,

we'll just completely forfeit our peace.

Guilty as charged. I'm just like,

right.

green. Hang up your phone and go person.

Right.

All upset. I'm I'm a honker. Right. My

my family hates it, but I'm just like,

let's get it going. Yeah. We'll

completely forfeit our peace for the

most ridiculous things.

Man, we're a selfish, spoiled little

generation.

It didn't go my way. And we talk to God

like that. God, you didn't do what I

wanted you to do when when I wanted you

to do it.

Yeah.

Forfeiting our peace because we're

listening to the flesh. We're not

protecting the peace. We really need to

pursue peace.

Is it worth it to get all upset and let

yourself get in chaos?

or are we fighting to protect the peace?

I love the story when Jesus is in the

boat. We talked about Jonah and Jesus is

in the boat with his disciples and uh

man, this violent storm comes rolling up

and uh it's these are professional

fishermen and these guys are used to the

waters and these guys are scared for

their life. They think they're going to

die. This is how violent the storm is.

And they go looking for Jesus. Where's

Jesus?

He's sleeping on the boat, right? And so

they go to wake up Jesus. And I'm

guessing uh that it wasn't this uh

Jesus,

Jesus, are you are you awake? Right? I'm

guessing these guys were like flipping

their lid. Mark 4:38 says Jesus was in

Mark 4:38

the stern asleep on a cushion and uh

they finally wake him up and they say,

"Teacher, do you not care that we're

perishing?

You obviously don't care that I'm dying

in this." We pray this way, don't we?

The storm comes and it's like, "Where's

Jesus?" Well, you obviously don't care

about me. Why are you letting this

happen to me? You're letting this storm

rage and I feel like I'm going to die.

All this stuff. We just get so crazy.

And Jesus, we're looking for Jesus to

calm the storm for us. And Jesus is

looking for us to calm the storm in our

life. Amen.

They wake up Jesus. He gets up there. He

says three words.

Peace. Be still.

Right? And there's this great calm. He

turns to them and says, "Why are you so

afraid?

Have you still no faith?" Listen, we

have the type of faith, if you're a

believer, you have the type of faith to

look at that mountain and say,

"Mountain, jump into the sea." And that

mountain will jump into the sea. And

that's the type of faith that we have,

right? And somehow the littlest

circumstance will shift in our life. And

we don't have any faith and we're just

going to die. And God, why did you do

this?

Maybe God has allowed the storms in your

life on purpose so that you would tap

into a faith that brings peace to the

circumstance.

Here's the revelation. Storms aren't

sent to destroy you. They're sent to

transform you.

Oh, that'll preach right there, baby.

That's good.

Yeah.

Why' you send a storm, God, just to kill

us? Maybe it's sent to transform your

heart.

Maybe God hasn't stopped every storm in

your life on purpose. And listen, it's

not because he doesn't care about you.

We'll believe that lie. It's because he

cares more about you learning peace and

faith.

Say, protect peace.

And Jesus is in the garden of

Gethsemane.

He's praying. He's sweating great drops

of blood. and the sins of all mankind

are falling upon him. Right? This is a

moment. This is pressure. I would say

this, the greatest pressure that any

human has ever felt on the planet is

Jesus praying in the garden of

Gethsemane. What's he say? He says,

"Lord, if there's any way for this cup

to pass from me, let's do that. Let's

change the circumstance." But here's his

heart. Not my will, but your will be

done, God. Right? I'm I'm not going to

pin you down, God, and make you change

my circumstances because I'm

uncomfortable at the I'm hoping if

there's any other way, let's do that.

But but but not my will.

Your will be done.

Peace is not escaping pressure.

Peace, true peace is accepting God's

will in the midst of pressure.

Jesus doesn't get a different cup. He

doesn't get a different circumstance in

Gethsemane. what he gets is a deeper yes

to the obedience. Amen.

Because if you pray and ask, here's

here's what we do sometimes. We're

praying and asking, "God, I don't like

the circumstance. I don't like the

pressure. I don't like that thing. I'm

uncomfortable in this." We'll say, "God,

can we do something else here, right?

I'm begging you, please." And then we

won't hear the answer from God that we

want. And we'll leave the pressure

anyways.

And we'll say, "Well, I feel relief

because I'm no longer under that

pressure.

It's the placebo of peace.

Getting peace doesn't always mean

getting different circumstances.

Staying

in the circumstance will give you a

deeper yes.

When God answers, you get a confirmation

of yes, I'm supposed to walk through

this. And he that is in me is greater

than he that is in this world. And I

start laying claim to the promises of

God. And Lord, if you want me to stay

here, I'll stay here. Lord, if you want

me to walk through hell and high water

to get there, I'll walk through hell and

high water to get there. But I will not

abort mission because I'm uncomfortable.

Amen. What the church needs are some

people with some faith, man. People with

a backbone, people that are willing to

get up and go and do what God is asking

them to do. We have become a powderpuff

faith culture.

I'm uncomfortable. I didn't like that. I

can't believe the way that he said that

from the pulpit. I'm We're not going

back there next Sunday. You You sounded

mad.

Find every reason to not do what God's

asking us to do.

We protect peace

the same way that we would defend

anything valuable from God. Number four

in your notes is to permit peace to

rule.

permit peace to rule.

Here's the shift

uh is when we give peace absolute

authority in our lives. Colossians 3:15

Colossians 3:15

will change your life. It says, "Let the

peace of Christ rule in your hearts."

My goodness, that's good stuff. Let here

has the idea of surrender. It's like the

peace is is coming at you. It's freely

available like like God's trying to push

it in. And let is have the idea of

surrender. Surrender to God's peace.

Amen.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your

hearts.

The word rule here is phenomenal.

It's where we get our word umpire.

Say umpire.

Any baseball fans here?

Couple. Right. You got the umpire. He's

calling the shots. He's saying foul

strike. Right? And I got to say this,

the umpire is probably the least popular

guy on the field. You watch the game,

who do you yell at? Yell at the umpire.

Oh, come on. Right? Same as other

sports, you yell at the referee.

And to let the peace of Christ umpire

our hearts means that we allow the peace

of God to call foul,

to call strike.

to call out of bounds

whatever it is and we submit ourselves

to that not my will Lord but your will

be done

about to send that angry text

peace of God blows the whistle

strike

it's upsetting you stop but you get to

respond to it Right.

We've had this one happen.

We're about to gossip. We're about to

repeat something that we heard in

confidence. You'll never guess what they

just told me. And the peace of God

brings a check to my spirit. I don't

have peace about that. Right? I don't

have peace about that.

Peace throws the flag.

Umpire's not always popular.

But he's the one that we should listen

to.

1 Corinthians 14:33

1 Corinthians 14:33

says, "God is not the author of

confusion, but of peace."

We allow peace to umpire our hearts

so that peace can umpire our homes so

that peace can umpire

our relationships at work. So peace can

umpire everything that we do. Amen.

God is not the author of confusion but

of peace. And permitting peace uh to

rule includes what you allow in your

mind, what you think about, what you

give yourself to. Too often we'll think

about whatever we feel like thinking

about. We'll give ourselves to the

negative thoughts,

the gossip type thoughts,

the victim mentality thoughts, and we'll

say, "God, give me peace. God, God, if

you could just give me peace." But we

never allow peace to rule our mind.

Philippians chapter 4, Paul said this.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

He said, "Whatever is true, whatever is

noble, whatever is right, whatever is

pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is

admirable, think about such things and

the God of peace will be with you."

Isn't that good,

man? It matters what you think about.

Permit peace to rule. Let peace have

authority over your mind, over your

emotions, over your heart. All right,

you guys ready for the final P?

>> Number five is prevail as peacemakers.

Prevail as peacemakers.

Uh we didn't we don't receive peace just

to keep peace. We receive peace to

release peace to share it with others.

Matthew chapter 5 and verse 9, this is

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

where we started and this is where we're

going to end. Jesus says, "Blessed are

the peacemakers, for they shall be

called sons of God."

Blessed are the peacemakers. He doesn't

say, "Blessed are the peacekeepers."

Oh my good. There's a huge difference,

you guys. Huge difference between

peacemaking.

Peacekeeping. Peacekeeping is kind of

the placebo version of peacemaking.

Peacekeepers say, "I'll do whatever it

takes to to make everything fine, to

make everything calm, to make everything

all right." Okay? You guys ever done

this before? I don't want to I don't

want to make waves. I don't want to

stir. So, I'll just I'll just pull back.

We do it in parenting. We'll avoid uh a

a tantrum in the store and we'll just

let them have what they what their

little selfish rear ends are hungry for.

Right.

Raising kids is a trip, I gotta tell

you.

Yeah. We'll avoid uh having healthy

established boundaries in relationships

and parenting relationships and marriage

relationships uh because we don't want

to uh we we don't want to be the bad

guy, right? And so we become

peacekeepers instead of peacemakers.

What is peace? Peace is everything set

and established right in his eyes.

That's what peace is. Peace has a name.

It's Jesus. It's inviting Jesus into

this thing. And man, we we we have

boundaries. We we establish some things.

And I'm willing to say what needs to be

said and and go where I need to go and

do what I need to do to make peace. And

I'm not shrinking back passively just to

keep peace. You guys catching the

difference?

>> Peacekeeping avoids conflict.

Peacemakers engage conflict

redemptively.

Big difference.

Peacekeepers smooth things over.

Peacemakers dig things out.

Matthew 5 23,

an amazing scripture.

Jesus says, "So if you're offering your

gift at the temple altar, and you

remember there that your brother has

something against you, leave your gift

where it is by the altar and go make

peace with your brother. then come back

and offer your gift. This is wild. Think

about the emphasis that Jesus has here.

He says, "Man, if you're if you're up

here worshiping, you come to the altar,

right? And you're coming with a

sacrifice and all this stuff and you

remember an offense or something that's

not right with another person." He says,

"You just leave your stuff right there

and go make it right. Go find them and

reconcile." This is active peacemaking.

Not shrinking back until everything

blows over.

Active.

It's going. It's speaking. It's

reconciling.

I want to say this.

Jesus doesn't bless peacekeepers. He

blesses peacemakers.

Am I preaching that heavy? Y'all are so

quiet in the house of God.

Be a peacemaker.

I'll say this. Peacemakers being a

peacemaker requires both truth and love.

Ephesians 4:15

Ephesians 4:15

gives us the command to speak the truth

in love. Uh what I've learned is that

truth without love is cruelty or

brutality.

We find this too often in the church

world.

Speaking truth without love.

Also, love without truth is

sentimentality.

It's passive. It's making an allowance

for something that's probably not

healthy for them. Love without truth is

destructive. Amen. Just as destructive

as truth without love.

So peacemaking requires both truth and

love.

not angry. I'm not going to express

anger, but I do want to have a

conversation with you.

Amen.

It's having a bold type faith

uncction of the Holy Spirit to make sure

that things are right. Matthew 18 gives

us the charge to a brother sinned

against you. You go and talk to them

yourself personally,

not to 35 people in the church and on

social media and everywhere else, right?

No, we do that. Why?

You're offended by something. You go

everywhere else but the person. Matthew

18 says you go to that person.

You talk to them. You reconcile it. He

gives further instruction. If they're

not receptive to that, man, there

there's other things we can do. And you

bring another person with you and say,

"Man, I really want to make things

right. I'm really I'm really hung. I

want I don't I don't like this this

distance between us. This dissension. I

don't like it." Then you find another

brother or sister in the faith. You go

to them. You love on them. Say, "Man,

this is our heart." May maybe you might

be wrong. Maybe the other person that

you brought will say, "Dude, you're you

completely missed it, right?" And you

can make it right.

That doesn't work. says, "Man, take it

before the elders of the church." All

right, this is an issue.

What we have are too often people that

refuse Matthew 18 principle. They refuse

to be peacemakers.

And to keep the peace, we'll just leave

the church then.

And we see I see these people couldn't

settle here, right? I'm not talking

about this church specifically. I've

been in church for a while. But then

they'll go to a different church and

they hear the story a couple years later

they're the same issue. It's just a

different per set of people. Then

they'll go to the next church and

they'll go to the next church just to

keep the peace and we don't want to

confront things. We don't want to do

this. And they'll go and there's enough

churches in Fort Wayne. You can just

keep doing that, right?

Might be a Lutheran next year. You don't

know.

Yeah.

Matthew 18, go to the person, speak,

reconcile,

restore.

I'll share this. If I'm talking to

everybody

except the person that I'm actually

upset with, I'm not a peacekeeper. I'm a

fire starter.

I'm not I'm not making peace by

gossiping about it.

And I'll say this, peacekeeping is

emotionally draining.

You're constantly trying to manage

everyone else's emotions. I just want to

keep the peace. I just want to keep the

peace. And it's at the the the fault of

your own your own heart as a consequence

when you just keep the peace and keep

the peace and keep the peace. And we

don't want to we become overly passive.

There's a toll. Peacemakers are

different. They say what needs to be

said to bring peace

or

they'll choose restraint when they could

respond.

Making peace.

Not I've learned this. Not everything

requires a response.

A lot of people take the personality

test. I'm almost 100% extroverted. I

don't have a whole lot of internal going

on up here. Right. My wife asked me what

you're thinking and I'm like nothing.

And I'm telling the truth. Like there's

actually nothing. It's pretty quiet up

here. My daughters have talked to me.

They're like, "You don't have an

internal dialogue going on. Like you're

no what you see is what you get, right?"

So sometimes things just fall out of my

mouth. And I'm like, "But what are you

doing? Not supposed to say that." I

learned not everything needs a response.

Making peace sometimes is

keeping your mouth quiet.

H not every response requires a

reaction.

When somebody says something, it doesn't

require that I right. We're making

peace.

Pause before you post.

Yeah.

Pause before you post.

You ever been angry about to send it?

You know what I'm talking about.

Yeah.

Holy Spirit checks you. Pause before you

post. Pray before you pounce.

Man, that'd be a good bumper sticker,

wouldn't it?

I need that. God delivered me out of

anger and rage. I need that. Pray before

you pounce.

Yeah.

What's the Bible say? Be quick to

listen. Slow to speak, slow to become

angry.

Your anger doesn't do anything good for

the righteousness of God.

Make these Hebrews 12:14,

Hebrews 12:14

catch this. He says, "Make every

effort." Wow, that's hefty scripture.

Make every effort, catch this, to live

at peace with everyone that you like in

the church.

>> You guys ever wish it says other things?

everyone that you get along with at the

family reunion.

It says, "Make every effort

to live in peace with everyone

and to be holy.

Without holiness, no one will see the

Lord."

To live at peace with everyone.

That's the person that you stopped

talking to several years ago because

they hurt you.

Make every effort to live at peace

with everyone. Peacemakers, you make

every effort to make peace.

I think I'm upsetting some of you.

You're making a list of people you're

going to have to call after church

today.

Romans 14:19

Romans 14:19

says, "Let us therefore make every

effort to do what leads to peace and to

mutual edification."

Edification means building up. It's

encouraging. It's positive.

Do whatever it takes.

make every effort to do what leads to

peace.

Not what makes a temporary calm now.

I'm fine. It's okay. But do whatever it

takes to lead to peace. That

conversation that you're afraid to have

could lead to peace in that relationship

and bring unity. Amen.

Matthew 5:9, he says, "Blessed are the

Matthew 5:9

peacemakers. Catch this. for they shall

be called

sons of God.

Being a peace maker

puts us in position to be a son or a

daughter of God.

Can I share with you? You can't skip

this step.

You can't skip this step.

Blessed are the peacemakers.

They'll be the children of God.

Peacemakers run towards the resolution.

They understand that temporary

discomfort

sometimes is the price

of lasting peace.

Let's stand to our feet all over this

house.

We don't like to admit it, but oftent

times we're peacekeepers instead of

peacemakers.

And I don't want to leave here today

a peacekeeper. Amen.

I don't want you to leave here today

just protecting status quo.

I want you to leave here as sons and

daughters, peacemakers

in the kingdom of God.

Pray about it.

Be who God's called you to be. Do what

God's called you to do. Say what God

needs you to say.

My sense is that some of you are

standing in a storm.

You've prayed about it.

You've

prayed in such a way as to wake up Jesus

and tell him you're dying.

My sense is that God is speaking to your

storm. Peace be still.

But he's also challenging us. Ye of

little faith.

I believe that God is raising up

men and women of faith that have the

peace of God that surpasses

understanding, guarding our hearts and

our minds in Christ Jesus. I believe

that God is raising up people that are

willing to step up and step out in the

sake of peace for the kingdom of God.

Amen.

Ask the worship team to join me up here.

Father, I thank you, Lord.

So, you haven't called us to live in a

fake calm,

but Father, you have called us to live

in your peace, in your grace, and in

your mercy.

And so, Father, we pray that we would

even speak to our own soul, peace be

still.

God, that we would receive peace as it's

matured in us through the fruits of the

Holy Spirit.

Father, that we would allow your peace

to umpire our souls, our hearts, and our

minds. Father, that we would be a living

testimony of your peace.

Father, I pray that every room that we

walk into

that we carry the peace of God.

Father, I pray that people that know us

just sense a peace that came from heaven

when they speak with us.

God, that we would be your children and

that you would be our God.

Father, that we would serve you well.

Lord, I thank you for this people. I

release blessing upon every household

represented here. Release peace upon

their souls, upon their mind.

And father as the enemy comes to

distract and to cause chaos and

confusion, disruption, anxieties,

father,

I break the curse and I speak against

the work of the enemy over every life in

this room.

Peace be still.

Thank you Lord. We receive you today. We

thank you for it Lord in Jesus name. And

God's people said, "Amen. Let's worship

the Lord together. The altars are open,

won't you come?"

>> Thank you for listening to today's

message from Grace Summit Church. We

hope it encourages you to walk out your

faith this week. If you're in the Fort

Wayne area, we'd love to meet you in

person. Join us for a Sunday service at

9:15 or 11:00 a.m. on East Duvant Road

or connect with us online anytime at

graceummiturch.com.

Have a blessed week and we'll see you

next time.