Peace With God & Peace From God

While we can understand it might be a problem with the unsaved, we have a difficult time understanding why it is a problem with the saved.

WHY IS ANXIETY SUCH A PROBLEM TODAY?

Someone printed these words under a tranquil scene on a calendar: "Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday."

We do spend a lot of time worrying about tomorrow. So many in our society insist on trying to carry the…

• Burdens of the past

• Burdens of the present

• Burdens of the future

…on their shoulders every day of their life.

Illus: The trucking industry builds different kinds of trucks to carry different loads. Suppose someone has a three ton truck and they put ten tons on it. All of a sudden, the axle collapses and they can not understand what happened! Now any sensible person would know the problem is that they put a load on the truck that it was never designed to carry.

It is important for us to realize that we can load our life down with the cares of this world if we want to, but it is only a matter of time before we will collapse under the load.

Many people have inflicted burdens on themselves. When will we Christians ever learn the simple lesson the Lord teaches us in Matthew 6:25-33?

WHAT LESSON IS THAT? Let’s look and see, He said, “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall

he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

That one passage of Scripture determines if we are going to live a life of PEACE or CHAOS.

Illus: I like what Gordon MacDonald said, "No man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear." (Gordon MacDonald, Better Than Gold, p. 45, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

Illus: Theodore Ledyard Cuyler said, "God never built a Christian strong enough to carry today's duties with tomorrow's anxieties piled on top of them." (Instant Quotation Dictionary, p. 27.)

While we Christians live in a world of anxiety, let’s look at how the Lord said we can survive. The Lord never promised that life would be easy, but He has promised that as we face these difficulties in life, He will give us HIS PEACE.

WHAT KIND OF PEACE DOES HE PROVIDE FOR US? It is....

I. A PARTING PEACE

Look at our text verse again in JOHN 14:27, “PEACE I LEAVE WITH YOU, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

In this verse of Scripture, He is addressing Christians and He makes them a promise, “PEACE I LEAVE WITH YOU.”

Again, we can see why anxiety could be a problem with the unsaved, but from what the Scripture teaches, it should not be a problem with the saved. If I am anxious, worried, and bent out of shape, there is something in my life that God never intended to be there.

One of the ways we can know God is in our PRIVATE LIFE and PUBLIC WORSHIP SERVICES, is because when He is there, THERE IS PEACE.

The Corinthian church had a lot of unrest in it and Paul wrote and said this; 1 Cor. 14:33, “For God is not the author of confusion, BUT OF PEACE, as in all churches of the saints.”

Did you get that? Any time we have Chaos in our life or in our church, the chaos is not coming from God. Paul said God is not the author of confusion, “…But of peace…”