5 KEYS TO PEACE

Have you ever heard the saying, “If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all?”  I have heard that all my life, and I have always pictured a man that had absolutely no peace in his life.  Even as a young boy, my heart had compassion for people like that.  Most people do not have any real peace in their life because real peace only comes from having a true peace of mind.  That seems to be one of those things we all search for, but never really find, right?

I heard an advertisement that said if you purchased their product, you could have total peace of mind, because if it didn’t work, you would get your money back.  First of all, if a store tells me to buy something, then follows it up real fast with how you can get your money back if it does not work, well, I won’t buy it in the first place.

If I asked each of you here this morning if you have true peace of mind, I doubt if very many would raise their hands.  We want it; we search for it; but too many things seem to always get in our way of having it.

We can only have peace if we have the freedom found through Jesus. 

We talk a lot about our nation’s freedoms on Memorial Day and on July 4^th.  But there are other kinds of freedoms we have, too.  Today, I want to talk about our freedom as a child of God.

EPHESIANS 4:29-5:2

29 - ‘Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up, according to their needs – that it may benefit those who listen.’

30 - ‘And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.’

31 - ‘Get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger; brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.’

32 – ‘Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you.’

5:1 – ‘Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children – and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us, and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.’

Let’s quickly cover each one of these verses I just read.

Verse 29 says we should watch what we say to one another.  Just because we do not agree with someone is no reason for us to start tearing them down in our minds.  Just remember what your mother used to tell you; “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”

Verse 30 tells us to not grieve the Holy Spirit, because we have been sealed by Him for our Day of Salvation.  In other words, do not cause negative thoughts or feelings to Him.  Always ask yourself this question:  “Is what I am about to say, or do, going to be a negative in the eyes of the Holy Spirit?”  You will know the answer.  All you have to do is be obedient.

Verse 31 tells us to get rid of all the negatives in our hearts, and it tells us that so we don’t end up taking those feelings out on other people.  The longer you keep those bad feelings inside you, the more difficult your walk with Jesus will be!  GET RID OF THEM!

Verse 32 tells us to be kind, compassionate, and forgiving to others – no matter what they are like or what they may have done to us.  We must always remember that we were forgiven, even though none of us really deserved to be.  So, we must now pass it on to those who wrong us, so that God will continue to forgive us.

Verse 5:1 tells us that we must be imitators of God and to live like Christ.

We have just covered what God wants from us and what He does not want from.  Because of our carnal nature, we can always give Him what He does not want from us, but only through a humbled heart can we ever begin to give Him what He does want from.

Now, let’s cover …

THE DOCTRINE OF FORGIVENESS

There is a story of how the Cree Indian nation befriended the first Canadian pioneers.  Soon after, the chief of the Cree nation accepted Jesus and became a Christian.  Shortly thereafter, a member of the Blackfoot nation killed the Cree Indian Chief’s father.

The Chief rode into the Blackfoot camp and demanded that the killer be brought before him.  The Chief of the Blackfoot tribe brought him out and the Chief of the Cree tribe said, “You killed my father, so from now on you must be my father.  You must ride my best horse and wear my best clothes.  And it will be to you that I seek advice from starting now.”

The killer replied, “It is today that you have killed me.”

In case you missed it, let me tell you what happened in that meeting.  The Cree Chief showed the love of Jesus and forgave the killer who killed his father.  And in so doing, he killed the murdering and rebellious spirit in that other warrior.  And that is how forgiveness works.  Jesus forgave us, and our vile spirits have now found true freedom - freedom from suffering God’s eternal wrath.

Jesus said that in the same way we forgive our debtors, we will be forgiven our debts.  So if we are not forgiving someone, then we are asking God to treat us the same way we are treating them.  That sure puts a very uncomfortable light on the subject, doesn’t it?

Let me say this about our asking for forgiveness.  Too many of us have it implanted in our heads that God owes us forgiveness.  We take it for granted that all we have to do is ask for it and He will give it.  And He will – as long as His two conditions are met first.  What are they?

1 – That we are really sorry that we sinned against Him

2 – That we have forgiven those who have also sinned against us

If either of these two conditions are not met, the Bible says we will not be forgiven either.  We cannot be truly sorry unless we have a humble heart, and there is just no use asking God to forgive us when we refuse to forgive someone else.

God has forgiven us millions of times in our lifetimes, and He expects us to do the same to others.  When we don’t do that, it is almost like God’s attitude should be:  ‘How dare you not forgive them after all the forgiving I have done for you!  Since you refuse to forgive them, I shall refuse to forgive you!’  Certainly, none of us want that. 

Who do you have a problem with today that you cannot forgive?  I challenge you to contact that person this week and reach out to them in forgiveness.  Those who do not make peace are not going to be blessed.  Do you want blessed or not? 

So if you want to have true peace of mind, you must first start with humbling your heart so you will be able to forgive those who have wronged you.

In the Bible, we will find five keys to having this illusive peace of mind that we all so badly need. 

1.   The first key is FOUND IN rejoicing

What does it mean to rejoice?  The best way I can explain it is to relay a story of what happened in a jungle village several years ago.

It seems that the tranquility of this little village was broken suddenly when they started experiencing an earthquake.  People started running to and fro and everyone was frightened:  Everyone but one elderly lady, who continued to sit on her porch with a smile on her face.

When asked why she wasn’t afraid, she said, “How can I be afraid when I rejoice that the God I worship is strong enough to shake the world?”

In PHILIPPIANS 4:4, we read –

‘Rejoice in the Lord always.  Again, I say rejoice.’

Paul is so emphatic about it, he repeats it by saying, “I say it again – rejoice!’  Now, the one very important part of this verse is not the rejoicing part.  It is the rejoicing “in the Lord” part.

I believe that part of rejoicing is laughter.  God gave us this gift and we are to use it to enhance our relationship with one another.  Norman Cousins was diagnosed as "terminally ill" - he was only given six months to live.  Then he got the idea that laughter would help his cause, so he began to watch and read anything he could find that was funny, and he asked his friends to call him whenever something funny happened to them or whenever they came across anything humorous.

Previously his pain had been so great he could not sleep, but now he found that by laughing for 10 solid minutes, the pain was relieved for several hours so he could sleep.  Eventually Cousins fully recovered from his illness and lived another 20 happy, healthy and productive years.

Since this groundbreaking work, scientific studies have shown that laughter has a curative effect on the body, the mind and the emotions.  The lesson is this: laughter is sound medical advice so indulge in it as often as you can.

2.     THE SECOND KEY IS FOUND IN YOUR EMOTIONS

Now, I know that most Americans are so conservative they can’t show many emotions, even in church, but if we want true peace of mind, we must be willing to show true emotion.

In verse 5, it says,

‘Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do.’

‘Let everyone see’ means to do just that.  Act in such a way as to show everybody who you are and what you feel like.  I have said before that if we can feel comfortable enough to go bowling and hoop and holler when someone makes a strike; or if we can enjoy going to a football game and jumping up and down and yelling when our team makes a field goal, we should be comfortable enough in church to raise our hands and shout out a hearty “Amen” to the Lord’s message.  And, we should feel comfortable enough and bold enough to show our Godly manner to everyone around us – all the time.

Jesus supported this idea, in MATTHEW too.  He even instructed His disciples to let their lights shine before men in.  Doing "random acts of kindness" should be the normal life-style of all Christians.

3.   THE THIRD KEY IS FOUND IN PRAYER

Back in PHILIPPIANS 4:6 we read,

‘Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.’

If we look at this verse closely, we will see that it clearly states that we offer up both needs and requests as we pray.  I have heard too many people say that they feel uncomfortable asking God for things that are not truly needed, such as a promotion, or healing for themselves, etc.  God wants us to pray about everything.  He says to tell Him what you want, not just what you need.

When we are in prayer, and we thank God for our many blessings that will also remind us of all the joy we have from Him, too.  Someone once said that thankfulness and joyfulness are like Siamese twins; you can’t have one without the other.

A church was in the middle of a building campaign, and a member asked the pastor to have a prayer garden available, complete with flowers, waterfall, and pond.  She said that if they had a prayer garden like that, they could just go in and pray with peace of mind, having left all their problems outside such a serene place.  The pastor then asked her what she would pray about if she left all her troubles outside.

Peace of mind in God is not attained through forgetting your problems.  When we go to the Lord with our problems, and with the problems of other people, our faith is lifted so that we can face them with confidence.  They will usually not disappear instantly, but we are given the strength to see them through.

4.   THE FOURTH KEY IS FOUND IN THE WAY WE THINK

In verse 8, it says,

‘Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right.  Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable.  Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.’

Jesus said, ‘Let not your heart be troubled.’  But, as we all know, getting from here to there be sometimes not easy.  If we are going to find any trouble in our life, it will generally be found in our mind.

Americans seem to have everything but peace of mind, don’t we?  The AMA has reported that one out of every six Americans suffer from some level of depression.  Women are twice as likely to be depressed as men.  I wonder if living with men has anything to do with that.

Most of our problems are somehow connected with the thought processes - if we could only get our thinking straight, we would have more peace of mind.  That’s why the Apostle says, "Think on these things.”  It’s time we took responsibility for what goes on in our own minds.

Of course there are many different ways we use our minds: We use our minds to remember and to hope; we use our minds to invent and we use our minds to pass judgment on others.

5.   THE FIFTH KEY WILL BE FOUND BY FOLLOWING

Verse 9 reads,

‘Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you.’

In 1 CORINTHIANS 4:16, Paul writes,

‘So I ask you to follow my example and do as I do.’

In 1 CORINTHIANS 11:1, he says,

‘And you should follow my example, just as I follow Christ’s.’

The lesson here is simply this: If we want to be a successful and prosperous Christian, we need to find someone who has been, and continues to be, faithful in following Christ and be like them.

Quite often we hear people say, "Don’t follow man, follow Christ.”  In the world the message is similar, "Don’t be a copy-cat, be your own person.”  When a child begs a parent to do something considered questionable, he or she might say, "But all my friends are doing it," to which the parent quickly replies, "I suppose if your friends jump off the bridge, you’d want to do that too!"

But we take this anti-copy-cat mentality too far.  If you can find someone who, like Paul, is content in all situations, who has the peace that surpasses all understanding even while sitting in a damp Roman prison, then learn from him, and copy his attitude.

Here are, what I believe, are the five keys to having true peace of mind in Christ.

• Laugh a lot (rejoice always)

• Show off (your Christian fruits)

• Pray (let God know EVERYTHING that is on your mind)

• Think right (keep focused on the Lord)

• Copy smart (follow the lead of other true Christians)

At this point, I would like to go back to the fourth point; the one about thinking right by keeping focused on our Lord.

Paul spoke a lot about prideful hearts.

In GALATIANS 6:3, he said,

"If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself."

In ROMANS 12:3, he went on record as saying,

"Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment".

And as much as Paul warned us about pride, he also gave us much hope.  He wrote in ROMANS 12:2,

‘Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing, and perfect will.’

Thoughts are so important; they can lead either to our salvation or to our damnation.  In GENESIS 6:5, we read where the flood came about because of evil thoughts.

In MARK 7:21, Jesus identified the thoughts of man as what brings forth all kinds of sinful actions.

Where are your thoughts today?  Are they set upon Godly things or are they set upon the worldly things?  Are you full of thoughts about God, or are you full about thoughts of yourself?

It is easy to focus so much on what you might be going through, that you end up acting in ungodly ways.  Does that describe you today?  Right this very second, are you focused on God or are you focused on you?  If the answer is God, I say keep on keeping on.  If the answer is you, I say you better make a decision really quick.

As the old saying goes, “Garbage in – Garbage out.”  What are you putting in your mind lately?  And, who is it from?

Remember this; just as this church is holy ground, so is your heart and mind and soul.  Just as God will not want us to tolerate any kind of sin or quarrelsome attitudes in the church, he does not want you to tolerate any in your mind, body or soul, either.

If we find it in the church, it would be ungodly to let it stay, no matter what the situation.  And, if we find any in our personal temples, it would also be ungodly to let it stay.  That is why we must always strive to focus on right thinking.

Wrong thinking can be anything from having a dispute with someone to having wrong thoughts about your spouse, or any one of millions of sins that the devil has thrown out there waiting to snare us.  Be very careful on where your thoughts are.  Your thoughts will lead to your salvation or your damnation.

It is okay to go through your life by not worrying and being happy, but it is necessary that you do so only in the Lord.  However, it is never okay to go through life with a smile that has turned upside down.  That shows the fruits of your heart, and it shows those fruits are not from our Lord.

God wants you to have peace of mind.  But remember that the only peace of mind you will find is only found in God.  It isn’t found in the world or in our own thoughts.

INVITATION