"Cease Fire: Finding a Peace that Lasts"

MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
CENTRAL CHRISTIAN, BROWNSVILLE, TX

ILL. Have you heard about Tracy Lyperd? Tracy was a beauty queen in VA a few years ago. Shortly after crowning her successor, she drove 250 miles to seek revenge on her ex-boyfriend for jilting her & marrying another. She took along a pistol, a hammer, lighter fluid & matches.

When she arrived at his house & rang the doorbell, it was answered by his new father-in-law. Tracy faked having car trouble, & asked if she could use the telephone. Once inside the house, she took out her hammer & hit the father-in-law on the head. She stunned him, but didn’t knock him out.

What she didn’t realize was that he was an ex-secret service agent. He grabbed her & as they struggled, she pulled the pistol from her purse & tried to shoot him. That’s when the mother-in-law joined the fray & the two of them wrestled her to the floor, holding her until the police arrived.

I have a suspicion that Tracy, with that kind of disposition, was probably never in the running for the Miss Congeniality award. When questioned, she said that she was driven to seek revenge because she needed "inner peace."

PROP. Now, the subject of my sermon this morning is "the peace...which transcends all understanding." That phrase is found in Philippians 4:7. And in the verses surrounding it, Paul deals with the subjects of peace with one another, peace within, & peace with God.

Now, I think you need to realize that peace means "being in a right relationship." So peace with one another means being in a right relationship with one another. Peace within means being alright within, & peace with God means being alright with God.

I. PEACE WITH ONE ANOTHER

A. First of all, Paul tells us that we need to be considerate about & at peace with one another.

But that’s not the attitude of a lot of people today. They’re convinced that if you don’t gripe & complain & argue & fight for everything you want in life, you’ll never get it. So you’ll hear them saying such things as "Me first, & everybody else last," & "It’s my way, or no way!"

But in the church it’s different, isn’t it? I mean, after all, we’re all Christians saved by the grace of God. And since we all have that in common, we always get along with each other, never disagreeing. Right?

Wrong! We do disagree at times. Even though we’re all Christians, wanting to serve our Lord, there are still times that we disagree.

ILL. A couple of years ago a rapidly growing congregation I know very well sent out a questionnaire & asked its members to fill it out & send it back because they were trying to find out what the people felt about certain things. More than 200 members did so, & they compiled the results.

The one thing that the survey revealed most dramatically was that they were a very diverse congregation.

For instance, some thought they ought to go to the bank & borrow all the money they could borrow, buy more land & build all the buildings they needed immediately. But others felt that they shouldn’t borrow at all. Instead, they ought to wait & not build anything until they could pay cash for it.

Some felt they were giving way too much to missions. They wanted to keep the money for themselves, & use it to help pay for their new buildings. But others said, "We’re not giving enough to missions.