Sermon Cloud

Experiencing Peace

Genesis  *  Tim Kelly

Sept 14, 08

I. Intro.

In September we are going through really important responses that we face in life: hope v. fear/worry; peace v. struggle; Love v. rejection; service v. selfishness.

Peace- It is such a desirable thing, but also very allusive. 

We like to hear about it because it's comforting.  The Bible paints a great picture of peace and that is appealing.  Shalom in OT & Irine in NT (Grace and Peace)- Bible stresses peace.  Yet, the reality in life is far from Peace:

Internally: racked with guilt, fearful, being judgmental, putting others down, exalting yourself above others, internal stress, worry grips you, sometimes subtlety and other times not too subtlety. It's like the person who is frustrated by the chaos at home, stress at work, and guilt over how he has lived life. Internally no peace...

Externally: Our world is in conflict... Country against country, gangs v. gangs, political parties yelling back and forth, blaming each other, one-on-one conflict. Fighting in homes, at work, among neighbors, and even in the church.

Experiencing Peace: Are you experiencing peace? If not, what is it that is keeping you from experiencing peace? Peace can be a reality in your life, not just an unrealistic notion. We'll look today at experiencing peace with God & peace with others. We are going to see what God tells us about experiencing peace both internally and externally.

II. Colossians 1:19-23 P. *817

III. The Passage:

All of God's fullness dwells in Christ... Imagine this. Jesus is divine. The same power, wisdom, beauty, glory, majesty, love, holiness, etc. is in Jesus Christ that is in God. Same power, same glory, same omniscience, Holiness, etc. Yet, when He walked this earth he humbled himself, empting Himself, so He could serve, so he could sacrifice His life thereby honoring God's plan of redemption and love to humanity.

The why of salvation... "Alienation." Everyone is alienated from God. What does that mean? All throughout the Bible God is shown to be Holy. He desired closeness and relationship with His people, but sin kept a distance. He was tucked away at arm's length from the Israelites, God's people. He was in the Holy of Holies and room that only one person, once a year, would dare enter on the Day of Atonement.

When people approached God in the OT, they went through great measures to prepare themselves: dietary regulations, cleansing rituals, sacrificial ceremonies (finding and them presenting an animal God's way that was free from blemish...). OT people knew that they fell way short of a Holy God. This reminded them of how far they were from God. He is Holy and Perfect. My thoughts, attitudes, motives, actions, etc. are sinful. "Only evil all the time..." You couldn't even touch something because if you did you were instantly unclean and therefore unworthy to approach God's presence.

This is the reality that each person is in... You are more evil than you ever imagined. You are more selfish than you can ever conceive. "The heart is deceptive, above all things." "All have sinned..."

credit Tim Keller- Lev. 1 and later when talking about Day of Atonement (Scape Goat)- place your hands on the goat- transfer sin over to the goat... Keller points out the gospel.

Hands on Christ- have you place your hands on Jesus, transferring your sin? Have you touched Jesus? V. 21- Alienation and v. 22- Reconciliation. Touching Jesus- transfers His righteousness to you... forgives you, makes you righteous and therefore Holy, blemish, and free from accusation.

What a deal. Deal or no Deal! Jesus offers his righteous to you, forgiveness of your filth, your uncleanness, and sin. Let's see if they made a good deal or not. Take the 100k but 250k is in their case. Not so with Jesus! Your filth for His righteous. You can stand before God in His presence clean and Holy and not getting God's Holy and righteous wrath and judgment. His wrath and justice fell on your sin, but it fell on Jesus because you transferred your sin to Him.

The How... Through Jesus' blood. Spotless lamb, unblemished sacrifice; perfect sacrifice!!! We put our hands on the Holy, spotless lamb... Reconciliation is through Jesus' blood.

The OT sacrifices were preparing humanity to see the gravity of dealing with sin. A life was required in sacrifice. A pure sacrifice was required for what you did. Jesus was that. He accomplished this by giving His life.

IV. Peace with God:

A lot of people conceive peace with God through (1) good deeds ok/not so bad.  I'm not so bad.  I'm pretty good.  You are bad.  Each of us is.  You may convince yourself that your ok, but the Bible says you're alienated.  It's a Yogi Bear mentality: Smarter than the average bear... Better than the average person.  Since we are sinners, we don't see the ugliness, the danger, the insidious, damaging nature of sin.

A. Do you know and experience this peace with God?

B. My attitude isn't that bad...This one little lie is ok, nobody will get hurt.  Nobody will ever know that I thought this.  It's not as bad as the really bad criminals.

These and any sin alienates from God...  The Good news:

RECONCILIATION: Jesus brings you to God. 

This is our emphasis here at Genesis!  New beginning with God.

-Rebellious and runaway son

-Woman caught in adultery

-Righteous Pharisee: Nicodemus (must be born again)

-You and me

-You are more sinful than you ever imagined and you are more forgiven, accepted, loved than you could ever conceive.

-This is the radical message of the Bible; the gospel!

V. Peace with others.

Jesus can give you peace with God and peace with others. The Christian life always has a vertical aspect and a horizontal one. 

A. How? He forgives you and reconciles you to God. Just as I have forgiven you, you also must forgive one another. Forgiveness is the kicker. You can forgive others because God has forgiven you of worse things than what you've done to Him.

 B. Peace with others:

1. Seek peace- "Blessed are the peacemakers." As far as it depends on you, live at peace with each other. Romans

2. Conflict is a chance to glorify God- either by overlooking, forgiving,

3. Get the log out of your own eye- Admit you're wrong. It's a freeing thing to say. I messed up. I was wrong in doing_______. Would you please forgive me?

4. Go be reconciled.

 C. We are a church committed to working for peace, being peacemakers.

1. Resolving conflict- don't run from it and don't run through it. How can God be glorified in this. What happens when we work through an issue? It shows that we really believe Jesus can reconcile and work through our issue. He gets the credit. Unfortunately this isn't so common. Don't gossip, go to the person. Don't brew and stew about things and let your mind wander and think how horrible someone is... pray and go to them.

2. Extending grace- How gracious has God been to you? Extend this to others.

3. Peace at Home- we do the Dave Ramsey class to help give people the resources to deal rightly with their finances since money issues are the #1 cause of divorce in the US.

4. Alienation is the result of sin; unity and love is the result of Jesus-

Church is messy...  because people are messy.  Our personalities are different.  Jesus prayed for our unity in John 17 and spoke of our love in John 13.  By our love toward one another, people will know that we follow Jesus.