How Can We Have True Peace- Part 2
Pastor Kiruba Stephen
Praise the Lord and thank you for joining us. Today we will hear Part 2 of the message, "How Can We Have True Peace" by Pastor Kiruba Stephen. Let's listen.
In Philippians Chapter 4 Verse 6 says, "Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything." [New Living Translation] Why? Because our God is able to do everything! And a lot of times we carry the burden that we should not be carrying and we make ourselves miserable and others' lives miserable too. So we have to think, "Lord, am I just carrying what I should have given into your hands? Lord, Am I just carrying and walking around with the load that I should not be walking around with?” We have to ask the Lord and say, "Lord forgive me. Lord, I have been disobedient." We can justify ourselves saying that, "Oh, my circumstance is very different. You don't know my circumstance. I am going through this and that's why I am worrying.” We all go through, and I have, personally gone through sickness, personally gone through tragedy. God has brought me through many trials. But we can tell that the Lord God was faithful, He was always faithful and He will always be faithful. So we have to look at God's Word seriously.
Is the Lord saying, "Don't worry?" If He is able to, then why am I not obeying Him in this area? Why am I giving myself over to fear when I have to just give my problems over to Him like it says in Philippians 4:6, “Instead pray about everything” [New Living Translation], even the smallest thing and even the biggest thing which we think is a mountain that cannot be moved. If we think our God is bigger than the mountain, we'll say, "Lord, I am going to give my mountain to You because You are much bigger than this.” When we make the Lord the Lord of our lives, He will really become the Lord over our lives. Otherwise we are making the Lord much smaller than our problems and we are putting Him to shame. We are actually belittling Him by worrying. So we have to look to the Lord and say, "Lord, You are bigger than my mountain. Lord, You are bigger than my valley. You are bigger than my ocean. Lord, I thank You.”
So we look at the next part: It says how should we pray. If the Lord says, “Do not worry,” in His Word and He says instead, “Pray”, how are we to pray? Our prayers should be filled with our requests to the Lord with thanksgiving. So our prayers should not be, "Lord, you don't know what I am going through. Lord, You don't care. Lord, how many times I am coming to You?” Our prayer should not be a prayer filled with complaints and grumblings, but our prayer should be requests without complaints and grumblings for the Lord says, “Bring it to me. Bring all your needs.”
We can go with a thousand prayer points to the Lord, our needs. People can get vexed when we go day after day after day saying, “I want this, I want this, I want this.” But God says, "Bring it, Bring all your needs to me. You have your grocery list, bring that to Me. You have your sick list, bring that to Me. Bring everything to Me. Whatever you have, bring all your needs.” But how are we supposed to bring it to the Almighty God? Knowing that He is all capable, knowing that He is all good, knowing that He is all sufficient, we bring it to Him and we give it to Him and we thank Him for that. It's like taking a check to the bank and giving that check to the cashier and standing there just for the cashier to deposit it; and if we want the cash back we wait there, get the cash and leave.
We don't go there with check and stand there and complain saying that, "I don’t know if you are going to take my check. I don't know if you are going to cash it. I don't know if you are going to deposit. I don't know when I am going to get it. I am already standing in the line. Three people are ahead of me."
That's not going to do anything. And that's not going to make us happy. We may eventually end up going and standing in front of the teller but it's going to look really strange. We are going to get everybody around us miserable. So what I am saying is, we are actually standing in the line and talking things that we shouldn't be talking, which do not make any sense. So on earthly terms, we go. We have faith actually when we go to the bank; we have faith that when we stand in the line that we are going to come out with the cash. But, when we go before the Lord, lot of us miss that. We go there and we pray: ok I am going to pray; whatever happens, happens. We shouldn't go to God's presence like that. When we go to God's presence, we have to acknowledge Him for how great He is. And give our needs to Him and thank Him, thank him for what He has done.
See, if you look at that verse, it says "And thank Him for all He has done.” [New Living Translation] That is in past tense. So the moment you give your list to the Lord, your requests to the Lord, you know that if your prayer has fallen in line with the will of God, and you are leading a righteous life before the Lord, you know that it is done. He has answered it. So, thank Him because our God is a faithful God. We do not worship a God who does not hear or see. We worship a God who is a living God and who cares about us and who watches over us day and night. So with that awareness we go into God's presence and tell the Lord. So our prayers should be requests accompanied with thanksgiving. And the last point is the promise. If you look at Verse 7 it says "then.". I have highlighted that verse, “Then you will experience God's peace.” It's not like a regular peace. It is God's peace which exceeds anything we can understand. That means that we cannot understand the peace of God until we can experience it.
So if we really want to experience the peace of God then,
1) We have to stop worrying
2) We have to take everything into God's presence with thanksgiving
and then the Lord says a sure promise from Jesus Christ through His Word. The Holy Spirit is speaking to us tonight, that His peace that , (the peace that we are lacking), the Lord says, He will fill us with His peace that will guard our hearts like I said like a bodyguard, like a soldier, like a security guard standing in front of a big mansion, a big palace. The Lord says that His peace will guard, that will be the guard that will be guarding our minds and our hearts from any kind of attack. The Lord says His peace will guard. Nobody else can understand how are these people going through this but they are happy, but they are peaceful because it's God's peace that is guarding us.
And then when the Lord's appointed time comes, the Lord has His answers already. He has already answered it, but delivers His answers. When the Lord actually delivers his answers, then that will be a glorious time for celebration. But we start thanking even before we see. And the peace of God will guard us day by day to walk in His peace until we receive our promise, the fulfillment of our promise.
So the Lord is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. [King James Version] We saw that the Lord, He cares and we also saw that if we do not acknowledge the greatness of the Lord and worry, then we are actually putting Him down.
If we read Ephesians 3:20, it says The Lord is able to do, “He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.[King James Version] So when the Lord gives, when He answers our prayers, He surpasses everything.
He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or imagine, whether it's our health, whether it's our finances, whether it's our marriage, whether it's peace in the house - whatever it is, the Lord says, “He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or imagine.” So whatever request that you take before the throne of the God, before the Lord and pray, with thanksgiving and your prayer falls in line with the will of God, you wait for God's timing, God's peace will sustain you and you know for sure that He will surpass your expectation. God always surpasses your expectation, my expectation because He is the Generous Father. And He will bless you according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Whatever our need is, the Lord is faithful. The faithfulness of God endures forever. And we are going to thank the Lord."Lord, thank you because I have Jesus. Without Jesus, without His death on the cross, we would be worrying; we would be having miserable life. So because of His death on the cross, we have Jesus alive today who is telling us same thing that He spoke when He was alive on this earth.” He is alive today; He is telling us the same verse, "My son, my daughter, don't worry. Don’t worry. I am here for you because you cannot do anything by worrying. Give all your worries to me, I care for you and I am able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or imagine. Just come to my presence and pray and ask me whatever you need and thank me. Know that I am right beside you.”
Have you ever realized that when you kneel beside your bed and pray, when you are all alone in your room and pray, have you ever thought that Jesus is right there with you? He is right there, right next to you, listening to your prayers. We have to acknowledge that. We have to acknowledge that. We have to acknowledge the presence of God in our lives. Anytime we look to God, anytime we call on His name, we have to know, "Lord you are right beside me. Lord, help me Lord Father to continue to trust you, in spite of my circumstance. Help me to know Lord, You are always greater than my circumstance.” Thank Him in advance for what He is going to do. Every answered prayer that comes from the throne of grace is because of His mercy and because of His faithfulness. We have to acknowledge that even before He answers it. So the Lord is good. God says that He knows all your needs even before you ask Him.
So let's close now with the word of prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to make His word alive into our hearts this night. We may think "Oh, I know this already." But how far are we applying it? How much are we actually applying it in our lives? Are we really people who are trusting the Lord? Are we people who are really obeying God's Word when the Lord has told us “Do not worry”? Are we people who are really filled with the peace of God? Are we people who really obey God's Word and live a peace-filled life. The Lord is faithful. God is all faithful. Confess your sins to the Lord. He is faithful and just to forgive you from all your sins and God is able to give you that peace which you need; and be a person who will not worry and say “Lord, I believe. All things are possible. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah, praise you.”
We are just going to pray. The Spirit of the Lord is leading me to pray for some of the people who are listening tonight and we are going to pray with one accord. God says, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there.”[New King James Version] And we know we are all gathered together, we have more than two or three. And the Spirit of the Lord is in our midst tonight.
Together as the body of Christ, together as the children of the living God, as one family bought by the blood of Jesus we are going to bring all our requests to the throne of grace. We are going to ask Lord to fill us with His peace. If you have been a worrier in your life, constantly worrying, tell the Lord, "Lord, forgive me. Lord, forgive me of all my sins. Lord, forgive me of disobeying you many times. Forgive me Lord for thinking of You lightly, of taking Your word lightly. Forgive me, Lord Jesus for not thinking of You... Lord Father, not taking Your Word Father, Lord (not) taking You at Your word, not taking you Father seriously in my life, not lifting You up as I should but exalting the problems instead of exalting The One who can solve the problems. Lord and I take You as my Problem Solver today. I take You Lord as my Healer today. I take You Lord as my Sanctification today. Lord I take You as my wisdom today.”
“Jesus, we thank You, we thank You, we thank You Lord Jesus. Lord we praise You, we praise You, we praise You". Let's acknowledge before the Lord, "Lord without You, we can do nothing. Lord, without You, I can do nothing. Lord, without You I can do nothing but with You I can do all things.” With Jesus, we shall run through a troop. With Jesus, we shall overcome. With Jesus, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Hallelujah! How many times we have failed to realize that?
How many times we have failed to realize that we can do all things? How many times has the Lord said in His word "ALL" and so many places we have to underline in our Bibles everywhere we see the word All? But the Lord says, He can do all things for us. How faithful He is.
"Lord, we thank You. We thank You Lord Jesus. Keep us Lord true. Keep us, Lord, faithful to Your Word."
