Missing Peace

All right, so we are starting a new message series today, a Christmas series. Every year we do a Christmas series. This will be a three-week series entering into December 19th, which is our Christmas Sunday, and we are dealing with this idea of missing peace. Not piece of the pie, but a peace, a peace that only God can give us. How many of you make wishes?

You make wishes. At your birthday, do you still blow out the candles and make wishes? A lot of people have different wishes. They wish certain things. There's top things they wish for.

Perhaps you wish for more money, right? More money wouldn't be bad. It could never hurt to have more money. I mean, it makes things easier, right? I mean, it saves time, all that good stuff.

But what we know about money is it doesn't really ultimately make us happy. If you look at statistics, most people that are depressed are people who are dealing with depression or dealing with whatever it might be, loneliness and things like that. It's really, you know, money doesn't help. Money doesn't help much. Some people may wish to be married.

Maybe some of you single people are like, ah, I wish I could be married. That's a good thing to wish for, you know, to pray for and wish for. And marriage can be a good thing until it's not. And don't nudge your wife, please, or your husband. There might not be peace when you get home later if you do that.

So, you know, you might want to hold off on that. But, you know, marriage is not always happy, right? You can't be guaranteed happiness by being with somebody. And that's a good wish, but it might not bring what you're really looking for. And then some people just simply want to be happy, right?

I just want to be happier. I want to have a happier life. And that's not a bad goal. You know, we like the pursuit of happiness. We all want the pursuit of happiness.

We're all interested in being happier. How do we build our lives? And that's what America's like, you know. We got the freedom to pursue happiness. But happiness isn't guaranteed.

And the more we have, the more we want, the more we go after, the bigger our jobs, the bigger our promotions, the more money we make. It doesn't really achieve what we want. Because what everybody really wants, whether they know it or not, Deep down inside of themselves, they really want peace. Peace is what people really want. Peace is what people really want.

In fact, Christmas is a time where we think about peace, and the angel announced Christ's birth by saying, glory to God in the highest, and what? Peace on earth. Jesus talked about peace. He said, peace be with you. Go in peace.

He would often use the term peace when he talked to people, when he healed people, when he ministered to people. Go in peace. Go in peace. Peace be with you. The Apostle Paul, often in his prayers, would pray, grace and peace be with you.

Grace and peace be with you. Now, what the Apostle Paul didn't say is grace and popularity be with you. He didn't say grace and fame be with you. If you're famous and there's grace in that, no, he didn't say that. He didn't say grace and riches be with you, right?

He said grace and peace. Grace and peace, because really what everybody wants, whether they know it or not, is they want peace. Because people have money in the bank, but no peace in their heart. They're very empty in their heart. You can be successfully outwardly, but you can be tormented inside.

You can feel empty inside. You can travel the world and have all the experiences and go to all the places, but the one experience that you really need, the one experience that you really want deep down inside yourself is just peace. So you can have all the experiences in life, but those experiences won't fulfill what you're looking for, that peace. You could be married and have a marriage, but a great marriage, but not have peace in your home, right? You could be married and not have peace in your home.

See, peace is what we're all looking for. And I've been a pastor long enough to tell you that the outward does not often share the inward story going on. Someone can look like they have it all together. Someone can have all the resources they want in this life. They can have the house, the car, the perfect family.

They can take the pictures and post them on social media. Or put them out there. I'll tell you what, for me, from my personal experience, the more pictures people put up of their perfect life, I, there's something going on there because they want people so badly to know that they have a perfect life because they're trying to hide something. And that just comes from experience. Those, those people that you think have it all together, everything looks great.

Internally, something's off because you can't, it doesn't always reflect what's going on internally. Because everybody, everybody ultimately wants peace. We want peace. And the opposite of peace, what is, what's the opposite of peace? Tension?

It's fear? It's anxiety? It's, it's all those things. And we, we, and we all want relationships that are, are healthy, right? And, and, and for many of you, and we all want peace with our friends, with our family, with our, with our loved ones, with the people around us.

But often, we're misunderstood by it. We disagree. We disagree. We have hurt feelings. We have unforgiveness.

We have all these things, this lack of, of peace. So what you really want in life, ultimately, if you think about it, you sit back for a minute, I want peace. We all want peace. Peace. So is peace even possible today?

Is the question. Is peace even possible today? With the political divisions that are, they're happening, with all the things going on in the world, with the hatred that we see, with, with news organizations going back and forth, with your family and, and your friends, uh, and, and, and, and a, and a season where you may have disagreements on certain things. Is peace really possible? It doesn't seem that there is much peace, but is peace really possible?

I'd like to take you to Isaiah 26, and if you have your Bible app, you can open that up, Bible.com. If you don't have it downloaded on your phone, or you can look it up on your, your iPhone, and you can follow along there on the note page by going to events, and, uh, click on the event, Missing Peace Week 1, and I have all the information there for you. Um, but is peace even possible? That's really the title of this message.

That's what I want to answer today in Isaiah 26. And the context of this is a season of fear and unsettledness. So Israel is having a lot of unsettledness, a lot of fear, and Isaiah prophesies, he speaks over the people, and he says this, in that day, everyone in the land, The land of Judah will sing this song. And he starts to sing the song. Our city is strong.

We are surrounded. It wasn't strong in that time, by the way. They were dealing with a lot of things. A lot of circumstances. But our city is strong.

We're just going to prophesy and sing it. We are surrounded by the walls of God's salvation. Open the gates to all who are righteous. Allow the faithful to enter. And then verse 3 says, you will keep what?

Perfect Peace. All who trust in you. All those whose thoughts are fixed on you. Trust in the Lord always. For the Lord your God is the eternal rock.

I love that promise from Isaiah. You will be kept in perfect peace. God has available for us a perfect peace. But we are more familiar and acquainted with imperfect peace, aren't we? One minute we can be on top of the world.

The next minute everything is a disaster. I know for me, some days it's like, God, you are for me. I believe in you. I trust in you. You're there.

Your promises are there. And then the next minute it's like, why did you allow this to happen, God? What's going on in my life, God? Why weren't you there? I've been praying and I don't hear from you.

I did that with the Christmas tree yesterday. Got so frustrated with that tree. The lights weren't working and I was just, I was in the Christmas spirit. Oh, Christmas tree. Oh, you know, you're yanking lights off.

And then I just, I just gave up. I just got angry and just, just threw the tree down. And yeah, I lose my temper sometimes. And I just said, okay, I'm just buying a new tree. And I just went online and bought a new tree.

I said, forget this. I'm not going to spend half the day trying to pull lights off the tree. One minute I'm happy. One minute it's great. One minute we have peace with God.

And the next minute we don't trust God, right? Right? So what is perfect peace? What is this perfect peace that, that all this shakiness in life? What, what is this perfect peace that we have to tap in that's available for us?

Well, in the original Hebrew, that word perfect peace, the peace in perfect peace is the word shalom, shalom. Perhaps you. I've heard that term before in the Jewish culture. It's a term that's a greeting of coming and going. Shalom.

Shalom. It means this wholeness, completeness, fullness of peace, a fullness of peace. It means I have a peace with God. I have a peace with God that I no longer dread where I stand with God. I have this wholeness, this fullness in God, this peace with God.

And I also have this peace with others that I no longer hold resentment and unforgiveness for others. I have this peace with others because of that shalom, that peace of God. And I have a peace with myself that no matter what darkness was in my story, no matter what darkness was in your story, no matter where you were before, it is in the past. And now I am in the perfect peace of God. I have peace with God, I have peace with others, and I have a peace with myself.

I have a fullness, a wholeness of peace that only comes from God. And in the original Hebrew text of Isaiah, it says it twice. It says shalom, shalom. Shalom, shalom. The word shalom appears twice, meaning a double portion.

It's not just the peace that you need. It's more than the peace that you need. It does more. It goes further than the peace that you even need at that moment, that he has an abundance of peace, a peace that goes further than what you need at that moment. Now, peace doesn't mean this, okay?

This is where you need to know where shalom, shalom comes from. Peace doesn't mean that you aren't going to go through problems in life. Well, I'm following God, so everything should work out for me. Jesus never promised that, and you know as well as I do, if you're a student of the Bible, if you're a student of God's Word, if you're a student of Jesus Christ, that he says you will have trouble in this life. But I have overcome the world, right?

I have overcome the world. So there will be trouble. Your car will break down, even if you pray over it, okay? And you ask for it, it's on its last leg, and you're driving down the road, it will. We had a Toyota Corolla, or a Toyota Camry that we used to have, and we used to pray for it every day, that it would make it from one place to the other, you know, when we started the church, because we didn't have any money, we couldn't afford a new car, you know?

And we prayed for that thing. It made it a lot, right? But it will happen. Things will happen. Things will break down.

Things will happen. Your kids will fight, right? Some of your kids fought with you on the way to church this morning. Your experience is shalom, shalom, and then shalom, shalom broke, right? When the kids started yelling this morning.

They're not going to be perfect. You know, and from time to time, and I got to be careful when I say this because I'm not pointing at my wife, okay? Last service they were like, oh no, you're getting it. Sometimes your spouse will get on your nerves, okay? There will not be shalom always in your household, okay?

She says that more about me than I do with her. So, peace doesn't mean that you won't have troubles in life. Here's the deal, and you need to write this down. Peace isn't found in the absence of problems, but in the presence of God. You need to lean into the presence of God.

Peace is God's presence. God's perspective and God's assurance. In the middle of problems, we can have perspective, assurance, and God's presence. Well, pastor, you don't know. You know, you're probably sitting at home right now on the couch, and you're just like, you don't know what I'm going through here.

I don't even know how I'm going to pay for Christmas this year for my kids. My marriage sucks. My kids, they're wayward. They're on drugs. This pandemic, this economic issue, all the stuff they're going on.

I just, I, you say this, perfect peace? I just don't believe it. Maybe that's you. So, how do we tap into this thing called perfect peace? How do we get this thing called shalom, shalom?

How do we do that? How do we do that? The battle for peace begins in our thoughts. The battle for peace begins in our thoughts. Because we can, does anybody in here, is it just me, do you battle with your thoughts?

Is it just me? Okay, okay, yeah, everybody in the place, yeah. Everybody's like, yeah, I deal with my mind. I deal with my thoughts. Because it's a thought process.

The thought controls the heart. I love how Frozen, Grandpappy Troll, says it when the scene where, at the beginning where Elsa... It's shot by Anna or Anna shot by Elsa and Anna. They're trying to bring out whatever was in Anna at the time. The frozen curse or whatever it was.

And he was like, can you fix this? Can you fix this? And Grandpappy Troll said this, the heart is not so easily changed. But the head can be persuaded. And I thought about that when I was watching that.

That's so true because the heart is deceitful. Because feelings are feelings, you know, but feelings are dictated by the heart. But the thought has to be a part of that. The thought process helps us overcome fears. Helps us overcome anxiety.

Helps us overcome. And we will allow our thoughts to control. Then our hearts control. And we want God to be in control of our hearts. We want God to be in control of our minds.

Here's, there's two versions to Isaiah 26.3. It says, in the NLT it says, you will keep in perfect peace all those, or all whose thoughts are fixed on you. As I mentioned before, all whose thoughts are fixed on you. In the NIV, I love how it says, you will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast.

Your minds and your thoughts have to be steadfast on God. You lean on God. Now notice Isaiah doesn't say, perfect peace is those who fix their minds on CNN or Fox News, right? I'm an equal opportunity offender here, okay? My conservative friends and my liberal friends, whatever newscast, it doesn't say.

Whatever the news says, there your thoughts are fixed. Or your mind is fixed on the future, right? Or my financial problems or that bad news I got from the doctor. That's not where we fix our thoughts, our steadfast, our mind, our thoughts, or the comment that someone said about you the other day that you just can't let go of. That person said something falsely against you, and you can't let go of that, and your thoughts are driving you crazy.

That's not what Isaiah says. He says, perfect peace, all those whose minds are fixed on who? On God, on God, you can only, it's only God that's going to bring truth into your thoughts. Only God, nothing else. You can, you can, you can.

Use the wisdom of man, the wisdom of philosophies, and psychology, and the world of whatever, humanity. You can try all those things, but you will not find peace outside of only being fixed on the truth that God gives you, the thoughts that God puts in your mind. And that's why we lean on Him. Here's what the word fixed, just focus on that word fixed for a second. It's, in the original Hebrew, it's Samach.

Samach is to lean on completely, to fully rest one's self. So what he's saying here, you need to fix, you need to fully rest yourself, lean on God, and you'll keep peace. You'll have a perfect peace when you fully lean on Him, not partly lean on Him, not just kind of pull over, kind of, kind of, you know, touch Him a little bit. You need to completely rest and completely, fully lean on Him. Perfect peace through resting on God's unfailing what?

Promises. You need to fix your thoughts on those promises that are so available to us in His Word. So what is your mind fixed on today? I'm just going to ask you that, just right now, just practically. What is your mind fixed on right now?

Is it fixed on God, or is it fixed on the problems that you're going to face after you leave here today? Is it fixed on your schedule later on? Is it fixed on politics? Is it fixed on fears, on what's going wrong in your life, or could go wrong in your life? If you're focused so much on the future, where's your mind fixed?

Is it fixed on God, or is it fixed on what you dread? Did you come in here with a dread face? Some of you do, because I see it. You're not happy when you walk in here. That's why we believe you should lay all those things down and come and rest in the presence of God, because there is perfect peace in the presence of God.

We lean on God. He is the only one that can offer perfect peace. I love how the Apostle Paul says it, and this is one of my favorite scriptures. If you've been at this church any time, a lengthy amount of time, you know this scripture's coming sooner or later about how we fix our thoughts. Here's what the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 4.

He says, fix your thoughts on what is true, right? What is true? God is true. Nothing else in this world can offer complete truth but God. Or honorable, what is honorable?

What is right? What is pure? What is lovely? What is admirable? What is, think about things that are excellent and praiseworthy.

Who is excellent and praiseworthy? My bank account? No. My neighbor? No.

It's God, you know? The President of the United States? No. No matter if you're a Republican or Democrat. That's not where we fix our thoughts.

We put it on God. What is excellent and praiseworthy is God. Then the God of peace will what do? Will do what? He will be with you.

The God of peace will, he will place a supernatural peace on your life and on your heart, in your heart. There's something supernatural. It's something that we can't explain. Because my God is good and his promises are good. And his word is true.

And his word is true. And there's something powerful. But Christians are the worst about forgetting. We forget. We got short-term memories.

You have something that no one else has. Right? But we forget this. Now, let me just say this. Christians, you have something that the world doesn't have.

You have a peace that you can tap into that no one, it only comes from God. But we forget so easily. So easily. That he never leaves me or forsakes me when I'm alone. That when I'm lost, he is my guide.

He leads me in green pastures. And my weakness, he gives me strength. When I wait on the Lord. He renews my strength. There's strength I can tap into.

When I'm hurting, he is my strength. He is my comforter. He comforts me when I'm hurting. And nothing can separate me from the love of God who is in Jesus Christ. Romans 8.

I can trust in that promise. And there is a peace that won't make sense. So when we tap into that, there's a peace that won't make sense to those without Christ. They just don't get it. They don't understand it.

A peace. A shalom. A shalom. A peace that goes beyond the peace that we need. But a peace that goes into the situations and circumstances of life that may not seem peaceful that we can hold on to.

John 14, 27, Jesus says it like this, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. The world can't give it to you. What I'm getting ready to give to you, what I'm available, what is available to you, what I'm able to give to you, is not what the world can give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

So, Jesus said, My peace I give to you. What's interesting about that statement is that he's not giving you a peace. He says, I'm giving you my peace. My peace I give to you, not a peace, but my peace. This is a peace that isn't a peace of the world.

It doesn't come from the world. It's a peace. It's me. It's my peace. And when he made that promise, what is interesting is that in John 14, at the end of John 14, he was getting ready to suffer and die.

He was already experiencing that peace. He knew that peace. He was getting ready to experience something that most people would never experience in their lifetime. He would die on a cross, crucifixion. He said he prayed and there was blood.

He was sweating blood, which is an actual biological thing when you're going through so much stress. You can literally sweat blood. You have to be under a lot of stress, but you can. And he did that. The things that were weighing on him that he would bear.

He bore the sin. It says he bore the sin of all mankind. He was getting ready to go through that. But yet he says, I'm going to leave you with my peace. I have a peace that is available to you.

I can have this peace. I have this peace. You can have this peace. And it's not found in the absence of problems. It's found in the presence of God.

In the storms of life. Most of you know the story. If you're if you've read the Bible or you're a student of the Bible, either or you've read the story about the storm. When Jesus is and the disciples are crossing the sea and the storm comes in and there's winds and waves and and the disciples are freaking out. You know, they don't know what to do.

And Jesus is asleep in the boat. Right. And and there's and there's two storms that are going on in these in the disciples. There's a storm on the outside. Right.

The storm of life, the storm, the things that are going on, the circumstances in which they were under. And then there was another storm, and that's the storm on the inside. And the storm on the inside is much worse than the storm on the outside, okay? The storm on the inside is how, is what makes us respond the way we do to the storm on the outside. So Jesus says, listen, peace be still.

I bring you peace on the inside. When you have peace on the inside, when you have shalom on the inside, then the circumstances of life are belittled. And you can walk through the storms of life knowing that your God is with you and the peace that only He offers. He gives us true peace. Some of you are like, you go through those times, and you're like, don't you even care?

Don't you love me? I'm sure the disciples had those same questions. Do you even care, Jesus? You're sleeping in the boat. I'm waiting.

I'm waiting, God. Come on, come on. We got to get, I've been waiting for a long time. I've been working. I've been praying.

I've been waiting. I've been waiting. I've been waiting. I've been waiting. That's because you don't have peace in your heart.

You're looking at the outside. You're looking at the storm. You're looking at the waves. You're looking at the wind. You're looking at the boat and how it's almost capsizing.

And you're allowing the inward lack of peace that you, to affect your circumstances. But there's a shalom available for us. To keep in perfect peace whose minds are fixed on Him. How do you do that? Well, first of all, train your mind.

Your mind requires training. Did you know that? You need to train your mind how to think. When thoughts come, you have to immediately replace them with truth. I have to immediately replace those thoughts with truth.

And it's hard at first, but it gets better. It gets easier the more you train your mind. It's just like training in a sport. It takes time to train those muscles and train those things. But once you get to a place, you realize that you've worked out and you've trained well.

And you're able to accomplish what your coach or your team wants, right? It's the same thing with your mind. You've got to train it. You've got to train it to think positively, to think about what's good, what's on. What's, what's, what's, you know, good, you know, the things that are, that are precious, and the things that are holy, and the things that are pure, you've got to do that.

And, and whenever I'm, I'm, I'm faced with things in life, like an impossible task, I think about that scripture, like, God's never going to give me more than I can handle, and I can do all these things that He's given me, I can do all these things in Christ. And I am more than a conqueror, when I'm up against a battle, I am made more than, I am more than a conqueror in Christ, I can conquer things that the normal man can't conquer, because of the Spirit of God that is in me. And when I feel alone, and I feel like I'm the only one walking this way, and everybody else is walking the other way, I, I, I know that He has not left me, He is with me, He will never leave me, He will never forsake me. When I feel like I, I'm out, and of, of, of resources, or, or I'm, I'm worried financially, and there have been times in my life where I've been worried, like, God, how are you going to search? You called me to plant a church in Virginia Beach, and, and how are you, I don't have anything, what are you going to do?

And I remember that verse as a fear, I, I, I, I changed my mind by hearing.