FBCWest 710 | Peace
Recorded On: 05/03/2026
Bulletin
SCRIPTURE READING – Psalm 150
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
Praise and Worship
“In the House”
“What an Awesome God”
“Jesus Saves”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Peace”
PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“Praise You Anywhere”
Acknowledgements and Announcements
Sermon Notes
John 14:27 Jesus gives us His peace
Philippians 4:6 – 9 Prayer rather than be anxious and God’s peace surpasses all comprehension. Also dwell on positive things
1 Peter 5:7
Galatians 5:22
2 Thessalonians 3:16 Cast your cares on Jesus, He cares for you Peace is a fruit of the Spirit The Lord can grant peace in every circumstance
Ephesians 2:14 - 18 Jesus is our peace and He stops division by reconciling us to God
Colossians 1:19 – 22 Jesus by the cross reconciled and made peace for us
Isaiah 1:9 Jesus is the Prince of Peace
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
It seems all of us at one time or another find that we're anxious about something. Currently anxiety is a great problem so much so that you find many people in order to deal with your anxiety will do herbal drinks or elicit or prescribed drugs or even alcohol to deal with their anxiety. A different way to deal with your anxiety, one that is not just dealing with it but is a remedy. I encourage you to listen to how God tells us to avoid anxiety. God does interesting things.
One of the things that is interesting is that he calls imperfect people to bring perfect messages. As I tell you, as I point one finger out, there are three or more pointed back at me. Today's message is about peace. A lot of times when we think about peace, the joke at the mis-universal or mis-americ contest, usually they ask, what is it that you want and then the typical answers world peace.
Well, a difficult to have world peace if you don't have individual peace. How do you expect the world to do something that you can't do? And so the world oftentimes in order to avoid anxiety and anxiousness is to try to mask it and cover it up whether they may drink some kind of herbal tea or other kind of drink or they'll take some type of prescription medication or maybe some illegal medication or alcohol to kind of dull the pain or disguise it so that they're not as anxious. And I don't think there's ever been a time in human existence that people aren't anxious but because of social media and other things, it seems that we are in a crisis of all these people who seem not not be able to cope.
But God has provided for us a way to not be anxious to have peace. And so that's what we're going to take a look at how to have peace and how it can avoid anxiety. And so if you have your Bibles and you should, we're going to look at a number of different passages. The first will be John chapter 14 verse 27. And this is Jesus speaking and he's talking at the last supper. He's a number of different things and one of the things is because he's been telling them that he is going to be leaving them but he's going to provide the Holy Spirit will come and be a comforter and help to them but he says to this, peace I leave with you, peace I give to you.
Now does the world do I give to you to not let your hearts be troubled or let it be fearful? So Jesus is saying, while I'm gone, I'm going to leave you not peace, not even your peace. Jesus, I'm going to leave you peace. Now if you look throughout all the gospels, we see Jesus constantly always at peace. He's at peace in the midst of a storm.
He's asleep. His disciples are fearful and wake him up. The aren't you can. He's at peace when he confronts demons. He's at peace when he confronts opposition. He's at peace during persecution and execution. And Jesus says, I'm not going to give you the way the world does because the world doesn't it may succeed.
Stop conflict but it doesn't really give you peace. It just ceases conflict. And Jesus says, I'm not giving you the world's peace. I'm giving you the peace that I have. That's amazing. The God, the God that came to save us not only has saved us from the our sin and restored us and redeemed us and we're called children of God. He also gives us peace.
So we will never have true peace. One who gives us peace. And so first off in order to obtain this peace, you need to know Jesus because he's the one who gives peace. And then the scriptures, I know there are times that you lay hold of this peace that you may not trust me. So they're going to say, so the Bible is going to tell us how we are to avoid this anxiety. And so in Philippians chapter four verses six or nine it says this, be anxious for not a thing.
So whatever it is you and I are going through, financial difficulties, health issues, our family issues, our children, whatever. There is no exception here. It's okay that you can not be anxious for anything except that job promotion.
You can be anxious for that. No, the scriptures tell us we are to be anxious for nothing. Well then how is it that we are to avoid being anxious? Well it gives us pity.
But in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. So the cure for being anxious is prayer. And I'm worried or whatever, you know, the thing is counting sheep. The scriptures don't say counting sheep doesn't help you any. Pray. Jesus tells us that even those that tomorrow has enough problems for itself, concern about it. But he tells that making your request be known to God is the answer to restore your peace. Now I can't remember a time even as a little boy that I never not believed in God.
That this was not my first prayer, but the first prayer that I remember, I was in seventh grade. We had moved my family and I had moved from East Los Angeles to Orange County. And we came to a new school and we were out and I p e or lunchtime or whatever, but we were playing softball. And since I was a new kid, what you do with the new kid that you don't know whether he's an athlete or not, is you put him in a place that is the least likely to cause you trouble.
So because we didn't have a lot of left handed foot, me in right field. So I was in our right field and a little bit whole, if my ball is hit to me. Now I hadn't studied sociology or psychology, but I that in order to avoid being avoided and being accepted by a group of young youths, males, you need to show some sort of athletic ability. If you did in it, it was going to be accepted. And so as that pop fly came to me, I prayed, God, let me catch it. Because I knew that if I dropped it, I would either never get picked or it would stay in an eternity in right field. And they moved me to another place because I was least able to catch it.
Now do I know that God cared whether I caught that ball or not? Probably not, but I do know two things. The scripture said, but it's rare. He didn't say, well, if it's not important to God, don't pray. It was important to me that I catch that ball.
At that point, it's probably the most important things to me was to catch that ball, because I wanted to be accepted by my new peers. Maybe God cared, maybe God didn't care. He has told us in everything pray. So even if you think God is not important to God, he didn't say only pray for those things that are important.
Now in case you're worried, well, is it important? Not important. Romans tells us that the spirit will pray for us according to the will of God. So you don't have to worry about what's the right thing. Just say, just as what I want, God, and maybe let your will be done. But at that point, I was worried about his will. I was worried about catching the ball. Now there's a second reason that I think it whether it was important or not, there's another reason to pray, but I will talk in another couple of scriptures.
So he says, but in everything by prayer and supplication, make with thanksgiving. So be thankful whether God answers or not. Now we tend to be much more thankful when God answers it our way, but that's not what is just making requests known.
It didn't say, and if he grants you requests, be thankful. So be thankful of the fact that he hears you. So as you pray, be thankful that God hears and that he will answer according to his and the scriptures also tell us that he works out everything for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. So even if I'd drop the ball, he'd have worked it out for me. Trust him.
Let your request, request. It's interesting. We'll tell everybody else what we want. We don't tell God.
But there's the response when you pray about everything with supplication and thanksgiving and the peace of God and the peace of God, not the peace that it was resolved, not the peace that you got your way, not the peace that the world gives, but the peace of God comes to you. And not only does the peace of God come to you, which surpasses all the prehension, you can be at peace when the world is falling apart because the peace of God surpasses all comprehension. Now there's a joke that says that when you're keeping your head, when everybody else is losing, you don't understand the seriousness of the consequence of the situation. That's not what God said. God says, if you pray to me, I'll give you peace that people just don't understand so that you can be in a battlefield with people dying left and right of you and not even hard beat faster because you trust him.
You have that peace that he gives, not the world. And it will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. And so this peace not only comes to us, but is there as a sentence, text, our emotions and our essence and our thoughts. No wonder the world is anxious and looking for remedies that doesn't help because they don't know him or the peace, peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is there of a good and repute. He excellence, and if there's anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
So the scripture tells us to pray. And it tells us to change our attitude. Change our way. Instead of thinking about everything that is bad and could happen and whatever is just think about what's true. No wonder the world doesn't understand because to them, your truth may not be my truth. No, there is absolute truth. Better to consider that. We are to consider what's honorable.
We're to consider what is right. We're to consider what is pure. What is lovely? What is a good repute of excellence, thinking of things that worthy of praise, dwell on these things, when you have a more positive mindset, not a matter of positive thinking, but a positive mindset of saying, I'm going to spend my time on things that are true and honorable rather than on, well, did you hear that this person did these bad things and the world's followed apart, whatever? Yeah, you can be concerned about world-fold apart, we're going to be thankful that God's sovereign. You can think about God's sovereignty, we can think about the world's, you think about the world's mess?
If I'm going to get more anxious, think about God's sovereignty, you're probably more sure that he's in control. The things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, perhaps God of peace will be with you. So Paul saying, I know what you've gone through. I'm trying to show you an example of how you should conduct your life and the peace of God which passes not only all comprehension and with us. When we are not at peace, we're telling a God, he's not with us.
The second reason I was convinced and I am convinced that you can pray for things that are not important to God, like whether you're able to catch the ball. One, he tells us to pray about everything. Then it says, cast in your anxiety because he cares for you. He may not care whether I catch the ball or not, but he cared about me. And he may not care about your unimportant situation, but he cares about you. He cares about you to rise up and when you go to bed. He knows how many hairs you've got. If for some of you, that's less than less every day.
He knows you. And he cares about you. So we should share these things with him.
He cares about us. If you love someone, your spouse, or your children, or your neighbor, whoever, and you never, and you say you care about them, but you never wanted them to share anything, would you think that you really cared? Would you share anything with that person? You can trust them and then you know that they care for you.
Well, God says, share the things that are important. Share the things that are not important because I care about you. So there are no unimportant.
And God loves you. He cares about you. But I've noticed this other thing in this verse of first Peter, casting your anxiety on him. Most of us at best, what we do is say, okay, Jesus shared with me.
I'll give you part of it and I'll carry, together carrying my anxiety. It's not what first Peter says. It says, give it to him. Now, let me give it to him. Cast it to him.
Here you take it. It's a hot potato. I don't want it. Casting your anxiety on him. I'll take it because he cares for you.
Why are we so anxious in this world? God has offered us his peace. God has shown us how to avoid anxiety and to understand that it's not necessary because he will take it.
Relations 522 talking about the various fruits of the spirit says this, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, the look. But I'm just stopping this because it talks about one of the fruits of the spirit is peace, which means when the Holy Spirit dwells within you, he's producing fruit in you. And if he's not producing fruit in you, maybe the Holy Spirit is not in you.
It works and develops, growth, and fruit. And one of those fruit of the spirit is peace. So if you find yourself always anxious, maybe the fruit of the spirit is hoping. And maybe that should be a concern and a matter of prayer. It's a why, Lord. Why is it that I don't have as much peace? Why is it that I don't have peace? Is it not there or is not growing in me?
And now you have another reason to pray, to say, Lord, the fruit of the spirit is not my positive thinking. It's not my ability to orient things the way it ought to be. His ability to produce fruit in me and that fruit in me is also peace. Because let's face it, if you're a person of peace, people are going to want to be around you.
If you're a person of chaos, there's enough chaos. If you're a person of peace, then you're going to have the opportunity to share what God has done for you and who God is because people will want to gravitate to you because you're a peaceful person. The Bonyus 3.16 says this, Now may the Lord of peace, he's the God of peace, he's the commander of peace, himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. He's saying there is no circumstance that you will ever experience that God's peace will not continually be there.
Whether you're in a foxhole or laying comfortably in your bed worried about your finances. God, I grant you peace in every circumstance. You don't need drugs, you don't need alcohol, you don't need these other things because God himself will grant you all of these things in every single circumstance.
There's no circumstance that you can, God is not there, not concerned about you, not caring about you, and not being willing to grant you, not just the peace of the world, but his peace because he is the Lord of peace and he can command it to go wherever he chooses. Tannually. So yeah, you may be successful, say, Lord I have peace, wonderful, and then something comes up and you go, oh, and then you get chaotic again. This scripture says, no, no, he can genuinely grant peace. I'm okay. God's got this because he's got me and the worst thing that can happen is that they take my life, which is the best thing that can happen because to be absent from the body is to be present with him. So why am I worried about living when when they take the life?
I didn't want to just win the lottery. I want eternity and his presence, who is the Lord of peace? The Lord be with you all. The Lord being with us. And if God isn't with you, he did and moved. You did. It's like the Prodigal Son run out on the sun, the sun did. But when the sun started coming back, the Father ran to him.
God isn't waiting for you to grovel at him. He's with you. He cares for you. He loves you. For he himself, for God himself, for Jesus himself is our peace. Who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. By his flesh, the imitating which is in the law of commandments, contain an ordinances so that in himself he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace. And might reconcile them both into one body to God through the cross, to death, the imitating.
He came in a peace peace to you who were a far way to the Gentiles and peace to those who were near the Jews. For through him, we both have our access in one spirit to the Father. Jesus, peace, grants us peace not only between us and God. Jesus is sacrificed, reconciled us to God. God is no longer angry at our sin because Jesus has redeemed us from that.
So, hunger, this imitator is no longer this war between us and God, because Jesus has made peace between us and God. And then Jesus has made peace between you and me. Now, if there was ever a time of doctrinal differences is the early church when are you supposed to be a Jew versus not to be a Jew because when you become a Christian or you're no longer a Jew and there was that conflict and that fighting between the two. And Paul saying here, that was broken down. There's no longer this battle. We are a one body. Unfortunately, there are more Baptist churches than almost any place else because we can't get along with each other.
But each other, and we start a new church. I suppose the saying, no, no, Jesus died to bring us peace not only with God, but with each other. This peace is complete. Or it was Father's good pleasure for all the fullness that dwell in him and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross through him. I say, whether things on earth and heaven and although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death. In order to present you before him, holy and blameless and beyond reproach. This is sacrificed, brought such peace and reconciliation that we are now holy and blameless and even beyond reproach. No one can even speak ill of us because of what Jesus has done.
When we have peace with God and when we have peace with each other, it is true peace. And if he who has done that through his death and resurrection. The last verse is found in Isaiah 1 verse 9 and it says this. Jesus is the prince of peace. He is the ruler of peace.
In the world today, no justice, no peace. No Jesus, no peace. Because Jesus is the one who is the prince of peace, the one who grants it, who is the Lord of it. And if he is the Lord of peace, if he is the prince of peace, then he is the one that we should be seeking that peace. And he is the one that can grant us peace. It doesn't matter. It simply doesn't matter.
What your circumstance. It doesn't matter. The seriousness or lack of seriousness of your problem. He wants you to receive his peace.
And when we receive that peace, we should be praising him everywhere. And when we receive that peace, we should be praising him everywhere.
And all God's People Said.