1stBBC
Why are you in peace?
Mat 10:34 Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
1Ti 6:11-14 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
This message is for the man of God only.
Flee, pursue, keep the commandment are easy to understand and accept, but what about fight?! War?! Couldn’t we loose our peace by that?
Anyone who knew about God, holiness or faith should expect war.
No victory without a battle. No war in your life means only that either you are dead or on the way to be.
Why are you in peace?
1. because you are not fighting against the flesh
Gal 5:16-17,25 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do…. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
Col 3:5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Rom 8:5-6 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
1Co 9:27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control …
2. because you are not fighting against the world
Jam 4:4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
1Jo 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1Jo 5:4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith.
Gal 6:14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Joh 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
3. because you are not fighting against Satan
1Pe 5:8-9 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
Luk 22:31-32 Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.
Eph 6:11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
4. because you are sleeping
1Co 16:13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
5. because you entered the wide gate
Luk 13:24 Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
6. because your ship is sinking
1Ti 1:18-19 This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith
7. because there is no faith
Heb 11:32-37 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets-- who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated--
Heb 12:1-4 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God ….In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
When faith is there, war will be too.
Fighting a war is not easy … but at the end it will be rewarding.
2Ti 1:12 which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.
Rev 21:7 The one who conquers will have this heritage
Why are you in peace? Go for war.
Pastor Tony Skaff
2006
