Sermon Title: Reclaiming Stolen Peace
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Why do people live their lives free of peace? Instead of having peace, they are filled with fear, anger, regret and hopelessness. They lack the ability to simply lay their head on a pillow and go to sleep without laying awake worrying. Through the day they fret about what will happen or what they need to do. They live anxious lives, often hurting their relationships with their lack of patience and inability to give their attention to others. Does God intend for Christians to live like this?
Dr. Charles Stanley says the answer is no. In fact, he says that peace is offered to every Christian through the presence of Christ. He writes the following:
Have you ever been on a troubled sea? I have experienced storms at sea on several occasions and frankly, I have no desire to repeat such experiences! On the surface, the winds can sweep across the ocean at forty, sixty, eighty, one hundred miles an hour, with blowing rain, lightning, thunder, and an overpowering darkness. Waves can rise to twenty, thirty, forty, fifty feet high. A ship in such a storm can be tossed about like a little toy boat. It’s easy for an oceangoing craft to be lost in such storms, but underneath the surface, just a hundred feet down, there is no storm; all is perfectly quiet. No sound. No tumult. Not even a ripple of turmoil.
This remarkable fact makes me think about God’s peace. It gives me an inkling of what our Lord must have been talking about when He promised His disciples His peace. He told them that because they were His followers, they would have trouble in this world. In fact, He claimed that some of them would be persecuted because they were His disciples. But in spite of this, the promise was made by Him that He would never leave those who followed Him, and His constant presence would be the means whereby they could experience His peace. Do you see the connection between His presence and His peace?
On Sunday, we will talk about why we often lose the peace God wants to give us and what we can do to obtain and maintain God’s peace in our lives as we start the sermon series, “Stolen: Reclaim the Stolen Treasures in Your Life.” Hope to see you then!
