Embracing the Peace of Christ in Community

So when we're talking about letting the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, we're not just talking about whatever you have been defined as peace in our culture, right? So sometimes what happens when we dig into the scriptures, we allow our current paradigms around us to sort of control us a little bit, but we have to dig into this one and see something deeper here. This is the peace of Christ, and it passes human understanding. So really what we're looking for to rule in our hearts and to get the meaning of this verse is not to look at the way we would have defined peace outwardly here in our culture, but what's something deeper? God, what... What do you have for us that teaches us what this peace is actually all about? [00:37:18]

It's God's peace, and it passes human understanding. Jesus said in John 14, my peace I give to you. Well, that changes things right there because Jesus wasn't saying, look, just get peaceful. Go get your peace. No, my peace, the peace of Jesus I give to you. And Paul, in this verse, says, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. That's really something to think about. So the peace of Jesus. [00:37:49]

Shalom was the fullness of the presence of God resting here. When people greeted each other, I... One of the churches that I went to when I was younger, they would greet each other every Sunday. They would turn and say, peace to you, peace to you, peace to you, right? It's kind of like saying, how are you doing? Good. Have a good day. Okay, bye, right? We can nominalize it by not really taking it seriously. But if we dig in and grab the meanings, when people said shalom, and this came up to me again, watching The Chosen, where they kept greeting each other, shalom, shalom, shalom, shalom, shalom, shalom. [00:39:45]

You're saying the blessing of God, the power of God, the confidence that comes from knowing God be with you. The provision of God be with you. That's the peace of Christ. It's a big thing that involves a relationship with God. Jesus displayed this peace as he walked through the world. He had this sense with his father that was so unshakable that even when he encountered things that were deeply troubling, he was able to maintain his peace. [00:40:44]

But it's so much deeper than that. When Paul says, let the peace of Christ, rule in your hearts, he's really saying something more than just relax, just calm down. It's okay. You'll be fine. No, he's saying, enjoy for a minute, something that rules in your heart. That is the presence of God that so engulfs and contains you that you're not worried that that you don't have anything else bothering you because you know, who's got you. All right. [00:41:05]

As you remember from when we read it there, he said, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called as one body. Oh, there's a couple of things there we have to work on. So first of all, we as a body are called to this peace. That means if you decide to not walk in your peace, the rest of the body suffers because of your refusal to do so. [00:42:20]

That means it's not a shame oriented thing. Like, Hey, get your peace together. Stop worrying. Right? Not that at all. It's an opportunity to step into something that is a real thing. It's not something I attain. It's something I step into and it's a real thing. And God is giving every one of us this opportunity. Step into the peace. Lord, I'm sorry. I'm struggling. I can't see things. I can't, I don't know. There's troubles around me or troubles in me or whatever. Lord, help me. [00:43:33]

So Lord, let me take on your peace in all of its fullness. The confidence that comes from knowing you, the provision that comes from who you are, the power of life that flows from you all the time. Oh God, let that be the peace that I know and understand and what we're called to. Let it rule. Really? Come on, Paul. [00:44:02]

I have all kinds of times when I ignore my peace and I don't let it rule. So you're sure you mean rule, but this is cool peace because this peace has authority. Doesn't Jesus have authority? And he said, my peace, I give. You. Jesus said that you can bind and loose things. So you can actually bind peace to you and you can use the authority of that peace to order other things out. [00:45:08]

And I'm like, oh, and he's a believer. and I said so you've lost your peace right like oh god you set this right up for me so I started explaining this whole thing to him and he's like well that's really cool and I said you know you have authority and you can your peace actually has authority it can rule and you can tell using your authority you can tell anxiety you're not the boss of me peace rules me not fear peace rules me not anger peace rules me not failure peace rules me not anxiety anxiety you're not the boss of me so he and I said that together we we started saying this unfortunately we were the only ones in the office at the time and we started laughing right because we kept saying these things and we're praying and we're just going to god and we're just having this conversation and we're just having this conversation and we're just having the best time ever allowing the peace to rule and using the authority that this peace has so sometimes we feel under it and all of us feel this way it's good to know that you're called as a body so we can help each other with this we can encourage each other to walk in the peace that comes from christ this is not a peace we manufacture by thinking and circumstances circumstances this is a peace that comes on us through the power of the holy spirit oh i forgot one piece of this story he said the funniest thing to me he said what i really need is breath and i said do you why did you say that he said well it's just like i don't know i just need breath i said you know that's the word for the holy spirit is the breath of god so i said you're asking for the right thing and so we go to prayer right god does good stuff so just awesome that that could have happened five weeks ago but it happened this week as god's chance to just give a testimony about how all of this works so we we loose the anxiety we send it away we loose the fear we loose the anger [00:46:05]

That's the kind of power we're talking about with this peace is that when it settles in, nothing stands in its way, right? That's the authority of the peace of Christ that can rule in my heart. Okay. So I think it's really fun that then Paul sort of adds as a tag and be thankful. Is it possible that there's a cause and effect here? Perhaps if you're struggling with being thankful for whatever is going on, it might be because you've lost that peace. [00:49:29]

That when we really are operating under God's peace, we can't help but be thankful. Because we just see him all the time doing cool stuff all around us. We're like, that's good. Thank you. That's good. Thank you. And even the things that are hard that give us challenges, we can give thanks. Like Paul goes on in Thessalonians to say, in everything, give thanks. Well, like just because it's a discipline, like grip my teeth. Okay. Thank you, God. Can you say I have to? No, I can give thanks out of a heart of peace because that peace is established in rule. In my heart. [00:50:27]