July 19, 2015 – Pastor Matt James – “What the World Can’t Find”
Illustrations:
- I read on the Internet, “If I didn’t have TV or the Internet I would think the world is a lot better place.”
- Listening to talk radio can give you a heart attack.
Topic: The world is constantly trying to find peace in some very peculiar areas.
- We try to find peace by fighting for our freedoms and rights.
- We kill our babies to make life easier on ourselves and the kids we would have had.
- We marry the same sex or change our sex because we cant handle the responsibility of being who we are created to be.
- We smoke the ganja to bring peace to our minds and wind up a little too at peace man.
- “If we just kill everyone then we will finally have freedom to worship God the way we want and ride the world of all infidels!” says ISIS.
- There is no hope for politics. Don’t try don’t waist your time.
- But they can find no peace. They keep searching and then Paul says in, “ 5:1-3 Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”
God has made a covenant of peace with all who believe in Christ. Even in the midst of a world gone mad we have a constant pillar of peace in our God.
Text: Romans 5: 1-8
Rom. 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
Rom. 5:6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Because all the legal matters of our sins have been fully met by the blood of Christ we are justified when we put our faith in Him.
- God has made a covenant of peace with us through His Son.
- 22:14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
- There is no more fear of judgment or separation from God for those who believe and we wait for the glory of God to be revealed.
- We have been given peace that passes all understanding.
- 1:1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
- Or Psalms 23 – someone read it out loud.
- We have a better way!
Because of the peace that God provides are able to move on to the change in our lives granted by the grace God has given us.
- This is the first mention of sanctification in Romans, now we have peace so we can grow in our faith.
- The world wants to escape its sufferings but grace grows us through them.
- We suffer because of our sins, someone else’s sins, the curse, our enemy or a lesson.
- Suffer has a big category: How many ways are there to suffer? Loneliness, sickness, hunger, being poor, lied to, taken advantage of, suppressing, etc.
In our sufferings we want to react a certain way, to defend ourselves and make things easier.
- But we have a great peace in Christ that is not emotional it’s positional.
- A Christian can find peace in their suffering.
- We find perseverance to continue to do what is right.
- It builds character of Christ.
- And our hope goes back to seeing the glory of God revealed.
- We find peace in our lives simply because God is at peace with us.
- God is not our enemy, we were His enemies until we believed.
How do we know God is at peace with us?
- Because even at our worst, He displayed His best.
- He wont back out now, He will complete what He started.
- Our hope leads us back to the glory of God; the Spirit living inside of us. God is not in the temple He is in this temple. Is anyone disappointed by this arrangement?
- The Holy Spirit testifies in our hearts of God’s love for us.
- It’s time to dwell on the riches of God’s goodness.
- The media may say it doesn’t matter what we believe but for our neighbor who is looking for peace in his life it does.
- For us who keep losing our peace it matters.
- 1John 5:13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
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