Destroyers of Peace in our Homes

Introduction:

Any children here that are 4-6 years old?

A four-year-old and a six-year-old presented their mom with a houseplant.
They had used their own money to buy it and she was thrilled.
The older of them said with a sad face, "There was a bouquet at the flower shop that we wanted to give you. It was real pretty but it was too expensive. It had a ribbon on it that said ‘Rest In Peace,’ and we thought it would be just perfect since you are always asking for a little peace so that you can rest.

Today we want to talk about peace.

Many of you have maybe said this very thing to yourself this week: “Oh, for a little peace so I can rest.”

In the O.T. the Hebrew word for peace is the word “Shalom” which primarily signifies “wholeness” and can also mean “one again” 

Isn’t this how we sometimes feel? In our lives there are financial stresses, relationship challenges, time pressures, work demands and we can feel like we are hanging onto sanity by our fingertips dangerously close to coming completely undone and inwardly coming apart.

We need this inner sense of wholeness and rest.

In the N.T. the word for peace means “to reconcile or join.”
In Luke 1:79 Zachariah prophesies that Jesus would come:
79	“ to guide our feet into the path of peace."

Kids do you remember the signs at waterslides or roller coasters telling you that you had to be a required height to enter the ride or slide. There would be dolphin or a bear and you had to be the same height or taller than them.

The experience of peace, the path of peace has a starting point, a trail head or beginning in our lives. And at the trail head is a sign that reads: Only through the blood of Jesus Christ.

True peace cannot be found outside of a relationship with God. There is only one path of peace and it is to be walking hand in hand with God, in harmony and intimate relationship with Him.

Amos 3:3  “Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?”

In our sinful state we cannot agree to walk with God through life. 
Rom 8:7
7	the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.

God, in His holiness, cannot associate with sin and so cannot agree to walk with us.

Bible says in Colossians 1:21 that we are alienated from God.

How did Jesus guide our feet into the path of peace?

Col 1:19-23
19	For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
20	and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
21	Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.
22	But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation--
23	if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. 

Through the shed blood of Jesus it is possible for us to step onto the path of peace and know inner wholeness through being reconciled and joined together with God.

Peace between ourselves and God has been established.

It is through one act of faith, the giving of our lives over to Jesus, that we step into this position of peace and begin to walk with God in it.  

Rom 5:1
1	Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Col 3:15
15	Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

We have to “LET the peace of Christ rule in our hearts…”

This then becomes the challenge: How do we let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts?

What Colossians 3:15 must teach us is that peace is not somehow divorced from our behavior that we can live as we wish making choices according to our own self-will and yet know and experience the peace of God.

The two, peace and our choices, are intrinsically linked together.

It will cost us to know this peace that passes all understanding. It makes demands on us. It demands the complete denial of self to follow after Jesus Christ. It demands a mind permeated and filled with truth. It demands a disciplined prayer life.

When the peace of Christ is not ruling in our hearts, the peace of Christ cannot rule in our homes.

How many children here love to take their vitamins? We need vitamins to keep us healthy and strong. Our girls love to take their vitamins. They will ask for them if we do not remember. They suck on them like candy.

The first vitamin that a child has to have is a house of peace.

Our children need a peaceful home environment. They need this more than they need to be involved in music, athletics, the arts and for you to be run off your feet trying to get them to everything.
“Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil. Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred.” (Proverbs 15:16-17) 
“Better is a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting with strife.” (Proverbs 17:1) 
This morning I want to talk about a major destroyer of peace in our homes.
It is present in our homes when the peace of Christ cannot rule in our hearts because we are not denying self to follow Christ, we are not saturating our minds with truth and we are undisciplined and irregular in prayer.
1. Anxiety
Last week I needed to apologize to Breanna. I caught her sliding down the banister and I over-reacted and hurt her feelings.
I recognized it immediately, I was anxious and stressed.
Here are some symptoms of too much stress: impatience, irritability, prone to sickness, hurried in our heart, outbursts of anger, depression…
Philippians 4:6-7 starts by saying, “Do not be anxious…”
Remember what we talked about last Sunday, most of our behavior we do not premeditate. That is most of our thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors are spontaneous. They are spill over from what is inside of us.
“Do not be anxious…” is unpremeditated behavior. In a difficult circumstance is do not say, “I am now going to be anxious!”
Remember what I said earlier. Peace makes demands on us. It demands that our minds are permeated and filled with the truth.
We need our minds renewed again with the truth. Who is God? Who am I? What is the truth about my life and God’s presence in it that is true even in light of what I am now experiencing?
We need minds permeated and filled with truth so that our unpremeditated response in difficult, stressful, and demanding circumstances is not anxiety but rather prayer.
“Do not be anxious about anything,…” [sudden bad news, a terrible diagnosis, a dreaded conversation] but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And [the promise to claim] the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Peace demands a disciplined prayer life, in everything pray. Pray for concerns rather then worry about concerns.
He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in Him, 
whose thoughts turn often to the Lord! (Isaiah 26:3 TLB)
This is formed out of habit.
Now remember the other demand peace makes on us. Peace demands the complete denial of our self to follow after Jesus Christ.
When we are often overwhelmed with anxiety and fatigue we must ask ourselves: Am I being driven by my own plans? Am I being driven by what I feel others expect of me and by the expectations I have placed on myself?
Do I have God approved boundaries in my life? Are my margins set as God would set them?
Remember a margin is the amount of space between the current responsibilities and commitments you carry and your breaking point.
If your margins are too small you have no wiggle room. You have no room for spontaneity. No room for meaningful relationships. An unexpected phone call makes you angry, your children needing you makes you stressed out and impatient.
You need to ask God some questions: “What have I taken on that you have not asked me to carry?” “What have you asked me to do that I am not able to do because I have too much other stuff crowding out your will for my life?”
Listen: the call is for us again to deny our self and follow Jesus in what He has called us to do and we need our minds renewed again with the truth that we can test and approve His will His good pleasing and perfect will.
Listen: Our margins are too small if we do not have time for family nights when we slow things down and simply enjoy each other.
Isaiah 5:8 “Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.”
Have you heard about the newest gadget to insure peace and quiet at home? It is called a phone less cord!    
You may also need to say “No” to people at times by turning of your cell phone and not rushing to open your emails. 
 Block out times for you and your family when you cannot be reached. Despite what our culture says, it is not rude, it is necessary. 
One of the major destroyers of peace in our homes is anxiety. We need to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts and in our homes.
Conclusion:

In a back yard there once lived an apple tree and a thorn bush. The apple tree produced nice juicy apples that everyone liked to eat. Kids would climb up the tree and pluck the apples. Worms would eat the ones that fell on the ground. Birds would peck away at the fruit from the top. The owner would also prune and spray the tree to make sure it produced lots of fruit for the neighborhood. In the corner, about 50 yards from the apple tree stood a thorn bush. Nobody messed with the thorn bush. One day old Jimmy Johnson ran his bike into it, but after he got all cut up, he never made the same mistake again. Nobody picked any fruit off of it, everyone left it alone. At first the apple tree liked all the attention. But after about ten years, it started becoming envious of the thorn bush. It said to the thorn bush, “you know, I’m sick of everyone always climbing on me and picking my fruit. The master is always trimming me, putting smelly manure around my trunk, and making a fuss over me. I wish they’d go somewhere else. Better yet, I wish I was a thorn bush, then everyone would leave me alone.” The thorn bush then looked at the apple tree and said, “don’t be a fool! Bite your bark! Look at me! I don’t do anyone a bit of good. I feed nobody. I look ugly. All I do is harm. The master didn’t plant me here, I’m just a wild weed. The only good I do is to fill up some space in the yard. I would trade all the thorns in the world to have one child climb my branches - to have the Master trim my branches - and produce some fruit.” 

Listen, Isaiah 53:5, “…the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

And so when Jesus says in John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you...” 

Jesus is not talking about a peace that is a cheap whimsical thing. It will cost us to know this peace that passes all understanding. It makes demands on us. It demands the complete denial of self to follow after Jesus Christ. It demands a mind permeated and filled with truth. It demands a disciplined prayer life.

Peace is not had by placing a “Do not disturb” sign over your heart that no one dare disturb you and your plans including God.

Rather, true peace, the capacity for inner peace, the depth through which we can know it and remain in it is determined and established in us through adversity, through deeply challenging circumstances, events, and people in our lives.
We find that as we trust God through difficulty, as He prunes us, he produces in us the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, and peace.
Psalm 29:11 “The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace.”