The Way of Peace

Good morning, I'm waiting for you to turn it down. Thank you. All right.

Well, good morning. That song we sang, I want a principle within. I was thinking about that as we sing that, you know, that song said, a principle of within of watchful, godly fear, a sensibility of sin, a pain to feel it near.

Help me the first approach to feel of pride or wrong desire to catch the wandering of my will. The song saying I want the second I could sense it coming, just like I would sense, you know, when you walk on a stove and you touch it and immediately you pull away, it's like you never thought the thought I need to pull away now. It just you pull away like instinct, like muscle memory.

And this song saying that's what we want. We want such a holiness in our heart that as we walk, we just sense it right away. And I love these songs at the same time.

I wonder sometimes are we waiting for this like spiritual moment where the Lord will just flip the switch for us, you know, and when will that moment come? And yet are there some conditions that we need to meet in order for the principle within to be in its environment? We've been talking, I've preached three sermons now from my Bible school sermons on grace and we found out that grace was not something that was unconditional. It had conditions. Does any member the first condition humility, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

What was the other condition faith that we only have access to grace? It says by faith through the door of faith. And there was actually one other one that I just read at the very end of my last sermon. Does it, can anybody remember what that last requirement to receive grace? I won't fault you if you don't, but you can try.

No, but I mean, it's probably true, but fear. Okay. There probably are some verses, but it wasn't the verse I read.

It was grace be with all those who love our Lord in sincerity. We must be sincere about our walk with the Lord if we want to receive grace from him. Well, today I'd like to preach on something a little different than title of the sermons.

I preached back there at a living hope Bible school was called, um, the inner Christian life. Now we have a lot of sermons about the outer Christian life. We talk a lot about non-resistance.

We talk about wealth and we talk about, um, you know, things that Jesus taught in the sermon mount. Very important things. But unless those things flow, don't flow from our inner Christian life, they can just become religious form and they're not sincere.

So I want to talk today about another thing that's very important in our lives. Um, I find it ironic this week has been a, you can ask Caleb when he, I don't know where he is now, but anyway, it's been a very hectic week at work. And then even this morning as we, as we're sitting here, my mom was off the road and going up the road and the caretaker was trying to shoo her back.

And I was thinking, I think I'm gonna have to run to get the police involved. And I was just wondering how this is all going to work and what am I going to be preaching about? Well, you're going to find out in a minute. But, um, I just kind of ironic sometimes when your sermons line up right with what you're being tempted and tried for.

Um, I want you to imagine for a minute you're one of Jesus disciples, you know, it's been a busy day. You've been serving all day, you're tired, you're hungry, your blood sugar's low. And uh, you're going to get in this boat to row across the lake and a powerful storm arises and the wind starts blowing at gale force and the waves start beating against the boat and even into the boat.

And they're bailing out water, you're bailing out water, you can't keep up. And you're working feverishly trying to keep the boat from sinking. The boat's being tossed back and forth violently like a ragdoll and the water is filling up in the boat.

And all of a sudden it dawns on you, I think we're going to die. And you realize though that Jesus is asleep in the boat somewhere, or not asleep, he's in the boat. So you go to find him and when you find him, he's asleep.

And for some reason the scripture decides to say on a pillow. I don't know why that was included, but it was. Jesus is asleep on a pillow.

Now, I mean, we read that story over and over, but let's imagine if this wave is so violent, this storm is so violent, the water's beating over the ship and into the ship. How does someone sleep through a storm like that? Somehow the wind, the waves, the violent rocking, the screaming, all of that didn't seem to wake Jesus. And then when Jesus did get awakened and you're telling him, Jesus, we're going to die.

He rebukes the storm. He rebukes the waves. Then he looks at you and says, why are you of so little faith? Uh, yeah.

Now let's just modernize that a little bit. We're all down in California doing some street ministry with Jesus. 12 of us are disciples of Jesus.

We're down there for, and we've been all week working down there. And it's our last day. We, uh, it's time to go home.

We get on a flight back to Eugene on spirit. I think Jesus was economical. I think he would have saved money to give to the poor.

So he probably took spirit back. And um, so you're on an economy flight, of course, the spirit, they nickel and dime you. So they, you know, you have to sit all over the plane, right? We can't all sit together.

So Jesus gets a seat in the back. You're probably towards the front. And the rest of the 12 of you are scattered throughout the plane.

And you get in the, in the plane, you're on your way back and you get about halfway through your flight. And the pilot announces, um, folks, there's a storm and I always hate it when pilots announce what's coming ahead. That just fills my heart with, um, ambition, right? No, I'm, yeah, I'm, uh, anyway.

So they, they say that folks, there's a storm ahead and, um, you know, prepare yourself. The seatbelt sign is going to be on for a while. And, um, so they put that on and you're looking out the window and wonder what's going to happen.

Pretty soon you start seeing lightning striking here and there. And all of a sudden, you know, out of nowhere, this lightning bolt, just, you know, the plane's just jolting, lightning bolt strikes the plane and all of a sudden the planes up and down. And pretty soon the pilots coming over, trying to recapture the plane, you know, throttling up.

And I've been in planes like that when that happens, it's not fun. And this would be bad, never been in this, but the ceiling masks come down in your face and everybody's trying to breathe and all of this. And you're realizing we are going to die.

Like this plane's going down. And then you remember Jesus is in the plane, right? So you go back there, you wake him up. He's asleep with one of those neck pillows in the back.

You know, on the way back, you see maybe Caleb sitting there and he's terrified. And you see Austin, he's singing near my God to me. But anyway, and that's what they were singing on the Titanic.

And anyway, you shake Jesus, you wake up and he wakes up and he says, he says, he rebukes the storm. He rebukes the plane and it evens out. And pretty soon he looks at you and he says, why were you so fearful? Now, I don't know about you, but I would think that was a normal response, right? A normal response.

But somehow Jesus had peace in the situation and Jesus was able to sleep through such a situation. And I think sometimes we dumb down the stories or we've read it so many times we forget about that. Why is that story even in the Bible? Why is the story about Jesus and the ship even in the Bible? Jesus said this, he said, peace I leave with you.

My peace I give unto you, not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. There's a worldly peace.

That kind of worldly peace is the kind when you go out on vacation, you leave all your cares behind. There's nothing bothering, there's about 75 degrees outside. The wind's blowing at a very nice, calm, even steady pace.

And you're at peace, but that is a worldly peace. That is not the kind of peace Jesus came to give us. Jesus said, not as the world gives to you, I give to you, but I give you my peace.

The same peace that Jesus had while he was sleeping in the ship, while it was violently rocking back and forth. Zachariah prophesied, Zacharias prophesied this. And along about four verses, but I'll just read you the last verse.

It was prophesying about what Jesus came to do. And it said, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadows of death to guide our feet into the way of peace. So as a Christian, when you say I'm a Christian, when you say I'm a follower of Jesus, you're saying you're following the one that has come to guide you, each one of you, into the way of peace, including myself.

Jesus was sent to guide our feet into the way of peace. Now, that's, I find it ironic. We talked about grace, but I find it ironic that so many of the epistles start off with grace and what? Peace.

In fact, my favorite one is in 2 Peter, I think it is. It says, grace and peace be multiplied to you. As if Peter is trying to say this is super important that you have not just some grace and peace, but a lot of it.

Paul told us in Romans eight that if we're carnally minded, it's death. But if we're spiritually minded, it's life and it's peace. In the Old Testament, it says that thou shall keep him in perfect peace.

Perfect peace whose mind is stayed on me. Now we sing that song, I want the principle within. We want these things.

But notice there are conditions whose mind is stayed. That means whose mind is leaned on thee. What is the verse going to say? Because he trusts in thee.

And so, as you see, peace is not just something we're going to have without meeting some conditions. Galatians says the fruit of the spirit is love, joy. Third one, peace.

Paul told Timothy, follow after peace with all men. Peter instructs, seek peace and ensue it. Now that's an old English word.

Whenever you see that, just think of the new English word pursue. Seek peace and pursue it or maintain it. Something you need to do in your life is to pursue the peace of God.

Peter said this about Jesus coming back. Be diligent. Something you need to do very diligently is to be found in him without spot.

That means being holy. Without spot or blemish and at peace. So as Christians, we have a calling to live at peace.

Now we fail, we fall. And that doesn't mean we don't get back up. That doesn't mean we keep pursuing.

That doesn't mean we keep trying to learn how to be in peace. But if Jesus were to come back any day, given day of your life. So let's say he came back on Tuesday of last week.

Would he have found you at peace? Or would he have more likely to find you stressed out, busy, distracted, frazzled, worried, or even angry? As we've heard, being at peace is a mark of a disciple of God. Let me read you Webster's definition. This is Webster's 1828 definition.

It says, peace is freedom from agitation, disturbance as from fear, terror, anger, anxiety, quietness of mind, tranquility, calmness, and quiet of conscience. When your conscience isn't nagging you, something's wrong. You're at peace.

But yet when I look around, many disciples today aren't at peace. Would you say that's a fair assessment? Jesus came to guide our way into the peace, our feet in the way of peace, and many are hurried. Many are stressed, and even me at times.

Now probably not on a Sunday, right? Where everybody's probably feeling pretty peaceful right now. Maybe as soon as we're over, it's gonna come back, right? The stress and the anxiety. But that's not the society Jesus came to create.

Listen to this society Jesus came to. The kingdom of God is not, anybody can say it? Meat and drink, but? Righteousness, peace, and joy, right? So if you wanna be a part of the kingdom of God, it's not just about, okay, these rules about don't eat this and don't drink that. It's about righteousness in your life.

It's about peace in your life, and it's about joy. It's about joy in your life. That's the society that Jesus is wanting to set up.

Now, listen to this. They asked 1,000 adults this question. Did you experience stress most of the day yesterday? And they didn't just ask in America, they asked it all over the world.

Did you experience stress most of the day yesterday? Anybody wanna take a guess? If you haven't heard this sermon before, you Bible school students, who do you think, out of what countries in this world had the least amount of stress they experienced the day before? Switzerland, okay, good guess. Somebody said the poorest countries. That's an interesting answer.

South America, third world, communists. What if I told you Muslim countries? That's kind of sad. Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Maybe it's their name, Stans, I don't know. But these Muslim countries were 12%. 12% said most of the day yesterday I had stress, 12%.

Now, from there, it went up to communism, Russia. Then we're into the free world a little bit, Germany, 31%. Oh, we jumped 10%.

India, 32%. The UK, 37%. Anyone who wanna guess what the US is at? 60, 75, 100, 95.

Okay, the answer is 52% in the US said they were stressed most of the day yesterday. Why are we more stressed out as a country than Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and even Russia? That's a little bit convicting. Yeah, we say we're a Christian nation and we're four times more stressed out than the Muslims and the communists.

I read this also, 38% of Americans, 38% said they're more anxious than they were a year ago. So we're becoming more anxious as a nation. In fact, I read about this, there's a new diagnosis.

It's called hurry sickness, hurry sickness. Now, let's see if you qualify. Here's the diagnosis.

You listen to these and you tell me if you qualify. You're always in a rush. Everything feels urgent.

Always feel behind schedule. You're low on patience and easily irritated. And you're uncomfortable with downtime.

So it's time to take a downtime and you're like, oh, I gotta be doing something. There's something we should be doing. You rarely take a rest.

That would qualify as a hurry sickness, which you probably, I don't know how many, maybe 52% in this room are hurry sick, sickened. Colossians says this, "'Let the peace of God rule in your hearts "'to the which also you are called.'" Your calling as a Christian, it's not an option. It's not a mere thing that maybe I'll get to it someday.

Your calling as a Christian is to let the peace of God rule in your heart. It's supposed to be a ruler. "'To the which you were called.'" When's the last time you thought in your heart, I need to let the peace of God rule right now.

I had to do it just this morning. So sitting there and wondering if I was gonna run back and forth to get the sheriff and trying to figure out, now, how will this look? This will be interesting. Roger will get up and say, well, we lost our preacher.

But Lord, this is, I'm not, this is not my thing. Now that word rule is very interesting. In Greek, it means to be an umpire.

Now you all know what an umpire is, right? Anybody tell me what an umpire is? Give me your words. A person that calls plagues. Okay, a person that calls plagues, what are you gonna say? Something similar? Okay.

I like how the Amplify did it. The Greek word is present tense. So it's, let the peace of God act as an umpire continually.

Act as an umpire continually. Now an umpire is a person who enforces the rules and also makes judgment calls. So they think about it here.

We have a, we'll just go with football right now. We have a football field and we have all these play marks or these lines. And as we're going down the, as we're running down the field, if an umpire carries around a little flag and a whistle, I'll just use this as my flag.

And he might have this right here in his pocket at all times ready to go. And say like you make this call, you make this throw and somebody does something wrong. I don't know how it all works, but there's some kind of move.

You can make the wrong move, right? They catch it wrong or they throw it wrong or they hit the guy wrong or whatever. He will blow his whistle and he'll throw his flag down. And that means right where he threw his flag down, the thing went wrong, right? It's a flag to say, we gotta go back.

So say like that flag, you threw the ball and you were standing, let's say like you were standing right here, you threw the ball, but you made a wrong move. He throws his flag right here. Everything has to go back to that position and start over, right? You don't just keep playing the game, you stop.

An umpire says, timeout, we gotta go back. We gotta go back and do it right. That's what an umpire does.

Now, this is what the peace of God is supposed to do in our life. It's supposed to throw out a flag, stop everything, timeout, something's wrong, right? Something's not right. Act as an umpire in your heart continually.

We need to get to a place in our hearts where the peace of God, when it leaves, when it throws up a flag, when something's changing, we say something's not right. We need to be in tune enough with the spirit of God that something's not right. I don't know, have you ever heard of the idiom, a canary in the coal mine? Anybody ever heard of that, canary in the coal mine? Okay, a couple of you.

So years ago, they would go down into caves, coal mines, and people would die. They'd breathe these noxious gases. People would pass out, die, and they didn't know why.

And they pretty soon found out there were gases in here that were killing off people. And so they would start taking these candles down there, and they'd be working and watching the candle as they're working. And if the candle went out, they knew, okay, there's no oxygen here, we gotta get out.

Well, then one day they were down there working, and I think this was in 1911, if I remember right, had the candle down there, and somehow there was some methane gas and some dust in the air. And that methane gas ignited, and it killed 85 of those workers down in that coal mine because of the candle, the gas, and the combustion. So they thought, you know what, this isn't working so well, so they came up with this idea, little birds, little canaries and they would take these little canaries down in the coal mine with them.

And canaries, somehow they get real lethargic and weak and they die before humans. So they could keep that little canary near them and just keep listening, you know, it's twerking, it's tweeting away and it's happy. But one day the canary starts getting lethargic and starts getting ready to pass out and die.

And that was a sign to them, get out right now. I read this somewhere, psychologists tell us anxiety in your life is often the canary in the coal mine, our soul's way of telling us something is deeply wrong and we need to fix it. It's the flag, it's the canary telling you the peace of God is leaving, something's wrong.

And if we're not in tune with that, you're gonna plow right over the empire. You're gonna just let the canary pass out and die and then you'll die soon too. We have to be in tune with the peace of God and when it's no longer there.

Jesus wasn't stressed out or in a hurry, right? And I, yes, we are called to walk like Jesus did. I'm often perplexed by the story of Jesus' friend dying. You ever think about that, Lazarus, he dies, takes two days to get there.

Jesus waited, how long? Anybody know how long he waited before he went? Well, two days, right? He waited and two days to get there. So four days, like you said. Now, if your good friend died and they called to get the next ticket, what kind of feelings would you feel in your heart? Like, I gotta go, right? I gotta do this, I gotta please them.

And I'm a people pleaser, I know the feelings and I probably do it way too much. But somehow, for some reason, Jesus didn't, it wasn't according to his father's schedule, it wasn't ready and so he waited those two days. He knew what the father was doing and then he got there.

Jesus wasn't in a hurry. That's convicting to me. He was about his father's schedule.

1 John says, whoever says he abides in him ought to walk the same way as which he walked. Or as it says in the NIV, whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. Jesus lived in peace.

Jesus, I don't think Jesus was ever in a hurry. Didn't you preach a sermon called that one time, Roger, at some Bible school back at Living Hope? Jesus was never in a hurry or something along that line. I remember it and you don't.

So Jesus was never in a hurry. He was always at peace. How can we do that? I want you all to turn to Philippians chapter four in verse seven, Philippians 4, seven.

It says here, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. The peace of God shall, ESV says guard. So here we have a promise.

God's peace can guard our hearts and our minds. And it's not just normal peace. It passes all understanding.

So this special peace that he can give to us will guard our hearts and our minds. But it starts off with the word and. If I said right now to you, and you shall make $1 million, what would you wanna do? Would you wanna read anything before that verse to find out how? See, this verse is not just in and of itself.

We have to read the verses before to figure out how to have the peace that passes all understanding guard our hearts. So we need to back up to verse, I think it's six, everything's blurry. Four.

We need to read all of these verses. But before we do that, I wanna show you a picture. I was gonna bring this thing here, but then my wife started telling me, she has this plant.

It's called an orchid and a very beautiful plant. I think it's an amazing plant. I thought, perfect, I'll just bring it here.

But then she started telling me about all of its delicacy. It's a very beautiful plant, but it's very delicate. So many times we go away on some kind of trip or vacation, and she asked the different ladies, please come water.

And they do an excellent job, but somehow the thing just cannot live. It's like it knows when we leave or something. And I was too dangerous.

I did not want to bring it here and be responsible. How long do you say it takes to get it back to have petals? Months to come back with petals. I took this picture this morning.

Isn't that a beautiful plant? That's an orchid, beautiful little plant. But this thing takes months to get the petals to come back if you do the wrong thing. It really does.

And she finally gets them and then we go again. And we've tried taking them over to one lady's house and another and had the people stop by. And it just, it knows when we leave.

And I kind of feel like peace in our life is kind of like that. It's kind of this delicate thing. It says that the Holy Spirit speaks in a very still and quiet voice.

And if we're not careful, if we don't create the right environment for peace, we can't generate peace, right? I can't generate petals. Stephanie couldn't go home today and command that thing to start having petals come out. But she can create an environment.

I think she has to do water at once a day. Once a day, religiously, right? Cannot miss it. Somehow her dad would keep them going all the time if he was good at it.

You have to stay on top of it or the thing dies. And I kind of feel like that's kind of how peace is in our heart, the Holy Spirit's peace. If you're not careful with it, it just goes away.

So you have to be very careful like you would with an orchid. Now let's read some of the requirements of these conditions that we must be in for the peace of God. Verse four, it says, "'Rejoice in the Lord always.

"'And again, I say rejoice. "'Let your moderation be known unto all men. "'The Lord is at hand.

"'Be careful for nothing, "'but in everything by prayer and supplication, "'with thanksgiving, "'let your requests be made known unto God. "'And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, "'shall keep your heart and your mind through Christ Jesus.'" What a great passage that Paul was writing to Christians and giving us some steps that we must be in and stay in that the peace of God that surpasses all understanding can guard our hearts. But we need to walk through these steps.

So the first one, we can see it right there, says, "'Rejoice in the Lord always.'" I would say it's pretty important in Paul's mind if he says it and then repeats it. "'Rejoice in the Lord always. "'And again, I say rejoice.'" You think that's pretty important? I'd say it probably is.

Now I'm somebody by nature, you know me, you guys like Micah said, once you know somebody well enough, you know their flaws and their bad breath and all of that. I'm a pessimist by nature. And so I tend to see the glass as being half empty instead of half full.

Someone asks me, how are you doing? Where does my mind go? It goes all the bad things, you know? I mean, I'm just gonna be honest with you. We are gonna connect over these things, but then you always feel a little gross afterwards after you tell them all the bad things. There's two brothers in my life I'm always challenged by and you probably know them.

Well, I know you know them, but you'll ask them, how are you doing? And they'll say, I'm blessed. Or another one says, better than I deserve. Now the other day, this was about a couple of months ago, we were over, it was the weekend we had the shared joint service with Harrisburg on that Anabaptist history.

And we went over to the gym for lunch. And I'll just say his name, Gary Krupp. You know, he's over there and I see him across the way and he's got on a walker now.

I think he's had several strokes and he comes like, seriously, I think he's gonna fall. He comes walking like this all the way up to me. And then he gets all the way to me.

He's like, how are you? And I said, I'm doing great. I don't know what I said. But I said, how are you? And he says, I have nothing to complain about.

Now, if you were in his body, you've had strokes, you can barely walk, you think you're gonna fall over. And you say, I have nothing to complain. Would you have something to complain about? Would you think you might have something to complain about? Somehow, I don't think that just comes naturally.

I think somehow he's trying to count his blessings. I was challenged by that. He had to choose to be glad.

He had to choose to rejoice. In fact, that word rejoice is actually translated, in other words, places in your Bible as to be glad. Isn't that interesting? It's not just an emotion.

It's actually a command. I mean, for me, I like to rejoice when I feel like rejoicing, right? But it doesn't say, rejoice when you feel like rejoicing. It says, rejoice in the Lord always.

And again, I say, rejoice. He's telling you, you have a duty as a Christian, you have a command to rejoice, to be glad. And that's not easy for me, but that's what it says.

It doesn't say rejoice in your problems, but in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. You might have a lot of problems, right? You're not rejoicing your problems, you're rejoicing in the Lord.

The song says, count your many blessings and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. I've talked to others, how are you doing today? And they say, ah, could be better. You know what I say to them sometimes? I say, yeah, and you could have cancer right now.

Or you could be living under a tarp in South Sudan or maybe in North Korea. Yeah, that's, you know, we can choose to see what are our blessings? What are, where are we at? It's a decision, it's an act of a will. It's a choice that we have to rejoice.

So I'm gonna write it down. The first thing is, our first thing is to rejoice in the Lord, or I'm just gonna make it modern terms. Be glad.

But I'll put, be glad in the Lord, because sometimes there's not a lot of great circumstances around us. But we better, the passage says to rejoice in the Lord. Okay, number two, what does it say? Let your moderation be known unto all men.

Now that's, I mean, if I was just reading this, never knew old English, I'd say, what does that mean? Let your moderation be known unto all men? How am I supposed to be moderate? Austin, do you have it in the ESV right there? Your reasonableness. Okay, anybody else have it in another version? Your gentleness. Interesting.

Self-control, what version is that? Oh, and a little, and a little side note. Let your self-control, interesting. So the lexicon Greek word for moderation moderation is yieldedness, kindness, courteousness, tolerant, let your tolerance be known, let your kindness be known.

I actually found this very interesting. I get excited about these kinds of things, but the word has changed through time. So way back in the day, back when the King James was written, moderation actually meant, according to the Oxford word dictionary, it originally meant lack of harshness, lack of intensity.

But with time, our words change, and now it means moderate in conduct. So see how it's changed? It used to mean lack of intensity and harshness. Now it means, oh, you're just, your conduct's not, you know, crazy this way or that way.

That's why we hear reasonableness and gentleness. Way back before the King James was translated, Tyndale was out trying to translate these Greek words. Listen to what he came up with.

Let your softness be made known to all men, softness. Bishop's Bible, let your patient mind, this is also before the King James, let your patient mind be known to all men. It describes the heart of a person who lets the Lord fight his battles.

So are you stubborn? Are you hard-hearted? Would people describe you as harsh, opinionated? Would they describe you as a debater, an instigator, headstrong, he's a line pusher, he's abrasive? Or would they say, no, that person's yielded and gentle? No, they're sharp. Things don't go their way, they get curt. Are you easygoing, flexible, willing to bow to the opinions of others? Because see, God's peace can only survive in that environment.

Remember the orchid? God's peace can only survive in that environment. The second we become not moderate, not gentle, we become harsh with men, God's peace goes away. And I've experienced that.

And the way to get back is repent and to apologize and to tell the Lord that I shouldn't have done that and go back to the place. Remember that line I had? Come back to where you messed up, right? In your heart. Come back to where your heart was and come back to receiving peace again instead of just going on.

Notice it says, the Lord is at hand. Let your moderation, your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.

Like he's standing near, like he's right at the door. He could come back at any minute. He could find you being harsh with others.

Live your life like the Lord is right here with us. How many times have you, and I've done it too, where you've said something a little bit annoying or a little bit with a tone and somebody's there and you didn't realize they were there. And then you think, I should be more concerned about the Lord than this person.

So let your gentleness, I'll just put, be gentle with all men. The Lord is near. Okay, and now we are gonna go on to our third one.

Now remember where we're at. We're talking about conditions according to Paul. I didn't write this, Paul wrote it.

Conditions for the environment, for the peace of God to grow in our hearts. Be careful for nothing. We'll stop there for a second.

So that mean I can just start throwing knives up and down and like be crazy with chainsaws. And what does it mean? Be careful, don't worry. Yes, that's once again, old English.

So it's, don't be full of care for anything, right? Don't be full of anxiety. In fact, it's interesting. This word is used when he says to Martha, you are troubled about many things.

Or when Jesus says, take no thought for your life. It's the same word. The same exact word.

So be careful for nothing, take no thought, thought for your life. Don't take no care or anxiety for your life. Or Martha, you're troubled about many things.

Troubled, thought, care, careful. So once again, this is not a option, right? Is this a command or an option? It's a command, be careful for nothing. Listen, okay, going back to older translations in the King James, listen how Tyndale chose to translate this.

This is gonna be convicting. Be ye nothing busy. And here we are in America, struggling with hurry sickness.

Paul said, be you nothing busy. Listen to this quote I read somewhere. Hurry kills relationships.

Love takes time. Hurry doesn't have it. Hurry kills relationship.

Love takes time. Hurry doesn't have it. Cory Tim Boone said this, if the devil can't make you sin, he'll make you busy.

Both sin and busyness have the exact same effect. They cut off your connection to God, to other people, and even to your own soul. Another quote.

To walk with Jesus is to walk with a slow, unhurried pace. Hurry is the death of prayer, and only impedes and spoils our work. It never advances it.

So once again, let's ask the soul-searching question. If I spent a week with you, or if you spent a week with me, would you say my life is more about hurry and being rushed and overwhelmed or stressed, or would I be at the peace that God has had in my life, in your life? So it says, be careful for nothing, but in everything. I met somebody once, they said, God's not really concerned about all of the things in your life.

Just make the decisions and pray about the big things. Is that what the verse says? But in everything, by prayer and supplication. But in everything.

So everything in our lives, we need to be praying. There are not some areas in our life that God has no concern for. Everything God has concern for in our life, and we need to pray about it and supplicate about it.

But notice as we're mixing with our prayers, what are we mixing? Thanksgiving, not just praying, but we're mixing in Thanksgiving. Not just pouring out, like David starts with all the Psalms, with many of the Psalms, with all the complaints, but then we pour in Thanksgiving like he does. So it's a balance.

So I'm gonna write it like this. Third command. Don't worry about anything.

Instead, pray about what? Everything. And then we'll put here with Thanksgiving. So we have three points.

Rejoice. Now I'm gonna have a quiz. You better, you better.

I'm just telling you right now, I'm gonna have a quiz. So take note in just a little bit. We're going to rejoice.

We're going to be gentle, flexible, like the Lord is right here, and we're not gonna worry about anything, but we're gonna pray about it. Now what's the promise? Did we at least do that? Nobody look at your Bible. What's the promise we're after? And the peace of God shall guard your hearts and your what? Minds, not just your hearts, but your mind too.

Your thoughts and your emotions, right? It'll guard everything in your heart if you are in this state. Guard means to provide a military guard, posting sentries to guard the gates from hostile invasion. Can everybody close your Bibles? See if you're gonna remember it.

Because really I could care less about preaching this sermon, and you all go home and go back to your normal life. Because then what time? We just wasted our time here. So we have to remember in the moment what state we have to be in, and what we're going for.

We're trying to create an environment for the orchid. Now before we fill that back out, I'm gonna read you a story. In early 1527, Michael Sattler presided over a conference of the Swiss Brethren, which would be the forefathers of the Anabaptist people, at Schleitheim in Switzerland, which produced the creed still known today as the Schleitheim Confession.

Unfortunately, the young Anabaptist and his wife were captured by Roman Catholic authorities in May of that same year, and tried on the charges of heresy for claiming that infant baptism couldn't save. On the morning of May 21st, 1527, Sattler was led out to the executioner. In spite of the horrendous torture that he was about to endure, he prayed for the judge and his persecutors, and then encouraged those standing by to repent of their sins.

In answer to his prayer, Sattler's torturers cut out his tongue. How would that feel? Then they took hot iron tongs, and seven different times gouged out pieces of his flesh. Sattler's bleeding body was then taken to the town square, where it was further ripped and flayed by the heated iron device.

As they tied him to the ladder to be burned, Sattler uttered another prayer for his persecutors. Soon his entire body was engulfed in flames. But Sattler had one more act of faith to perform.

He had promised to give his followers a signal from the very platform of torture that day. As the fire burned through the ropes, his hands, he lifted up one of them and gave them the promised sign. They knew now that a martyr's death was a bearable one.

Finally, from his seared lips, the crowd standing by heard him say, father, I commend my spirit into thy hand. Then he joined the savior in death that he had served in life. Another account reads as he raised his two forefingers of his hands, giving them the sign to the brethren as he had arranged that a martyr's death was bearable.

He had the peace of God. He had been walking in the peace of God. So in conclusion, Jesus came to guide our way into the way of peace.

We need to let that peace guard our hearts continually, umpire them. We need to learn how to stay and maintain peace in our hearts. And we have been instructed by Paul how to create that environment just like we had for the orchid.

And when peace starts to leave, it's like a flag, a warning sign. So I want to go back over it. Anybody who is under 15, can you remember the very first one we said? How do we, what are the three things we talked about? Anybody under 15? If you're a girl, you can say it because you're not teaching anybody.

I already got done teaching. Were you going to say something to her, April? Okay, yes. Rejoice or be glad.

So when you see the word rejoice, think be glad, okay? How about the second one? Let your moderation. That's what the King James says. And that means gentle, right? So when you see moderation, think gentle, reasonableness, but we'll say be gentle, be yielded, okay? We'll say anyone under 20, the third one.

Okay, don't worry, that's a good portion of it. But pray about everything. Good.

It wasn't a waste of time. That's a real blessing for a preacher. So let's work on that.

Let's, in our, I'm not saying we're perfect, but I'm saying let's try to be like Jesus. Let's try to be convicted by the story of him being in the boat, him being at peace, even in the most dire circumstances. Michael Sattler being persecuted at the stake and his flesh ripped out, being at peace.

Let's learn to walk like Jesus did and let the peace of God rule our hearts by meeting the conditions that Paul laid out. And God bless each one of you.