Read Luke 16
We have talked for some time now about God’s peace and living in God’s peace and knowing God’s peace even when the world is a mess. We can have peace in the worst of circumstances.
We will have trouble in the world. We can enjoy God’s peace in spite of and in the midst of that trouble. We are growing in God’s grace and learning to live in his peace.
For us, peace is part of an abundant life.
For some, peace is a part of existential tribulation. For some, peace causes turmoil in the here and now.
Whoa! Hold your holy horses preacher! How can peace bring turmoil and tribulation?
Many have made peace with the world. The world is their friend. The peace that they know is not the peace that our Lord gave us.
If you have heard me preach for a few months or many years, you know that I don’t really have a hellfire and damnation sermon. I could preach one, but it would be contrary to the ordination given to me. I am educated enough to give you a Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God message and it would have fidelity with Jonathan Edward’s message by the same name. It’s not that I don’t know how to give one.
It is that they are not effective and use one of the primary tools of the enemy—fear. People who come to profess their faith in Jesus through fear often are only professing their fear of hell. Even the demons are not looking forward to that experience.
I am not talking about the fear of the Lord. That’s a good thing and the starting blocks for greater things. I am talking about coming to Jesus out of the fear of hell. That’s the road most traveled in too many places and the road that ends before reaching discipleship.
And there are many who are not blind but still live by the rules of the world. They may have even professed their faith in Jesus but do not trust him with their lives. They believe but don’t trust.
These are people whom we know. These are people whom we help. These are people who may pray every day but have not trusted the Lord with anything important for a single day.
These are people that want the salvation of the Lord and likely have received it. Only the Lord knows if they indeed professed their faith—that they professed aloud that Jesus is Lord and believe with their hearts that God raised him from the dead.
They want their salvation from the Lord, but they seek their peace in the world. We talked before about Jesus bringing a sword. We have entered the third millennium since the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We are approaching the beginning of the third millennia since he ascended into heaven and the world has made a lot of friends.
I don’t know the day and the hour but I suspect the axe is at the root of the tree. Surely the time is near when God’s Spirit will be poured out. Surely we who follow Jesus must make the most of every opportunity.
Many do not know salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ but many others have professed their faith; yet both groups have united themselves to the world. Both groups are friends of the world. They seek their peace from the world.
Some have become friends of the world over time. I have used this analogy for years. It’s not my own. It was around for decades before I employed it. Leadership gurus, management analysists, and paradigm pioneers use it still today, as will your preacher.
Drop a frog into a pot of boiling water. It jumps out of course. But if you put another frog—it probably wouldn't be the same frog. If you get thrown into a boiling pot once, you're not going to get caught by these crazy management analysts again. If you put another frog into room temperature water, it will sit contently as you heat up the water one degree a minute until the frog boils to death.
There are many Christians in this world boiling to death one degree at a time. They are making peace with the world. They are seeking the world’s peace. They are vested in the world’s peace.
Many have received the salvation of the Lord but their response is to sin and sin profusely. What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound even more?
Paul was asking a rhetorical question, but he must have thought that some might take him up on this as a challenge, so he answered his own question with a resounding, “No!”
Have you seen the posts that pick on one group and sarcastically ask us to quit saying, “Could they get any more stupid? They are taking it as a challenge.”
It seems that some people today are doing the same with becoming a friend of the world. We died with Christ. We come to life in Christ. We belong to Christ. Why would we unite ourselves with the world when we belong to Christ?
The answer is that most of us do not, but we know so many who do. Are we content to leave them in the peace of the world?
If the answer is no, how do we keep them from boiling to death?
The world is becoming busier by the minute. The world demands more and more of you. The psalmist proclaims, “Be still and know that I am God.”
The world says, “You don’t have time for that” as it turns up the temperature by another degree.
I look at parents today. Sports take up big chunks of life. You can’t not play. You have to play every chance you get, or you kids will be left behind.
I look at technology today. You can’t not be connected. You can’t not play video games. You can’t not miss a day checking posts.
I look at addiction today. It seems like it used to just be alcohol. Then it was alcohol and drugs. Then it was pornography. Then it was tobacco. Then it was video games.
I look at today’s world and see so many things and events and substances that offer friendship to us. It’s not real friendship. The world has no real friendship to give.
So many people will go through this life and will have known little else than busyness. The sum total of their lives will be defined in one word: busy.
Now, if that is us, we must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. When we feel the peace of the Lord slipping away, we have the presence of mind to ask, “Am I becoming a friend of the world?”
We should have the efficacy to make the desired changes. That is, we should know what to do and have the desire, initiative, and courage to do it.
What about those who have tied the knot with the world? How do we reach them? Do we try to scare the hell out of them, so they have peace?
What do we who believe in Christ, are doing our best to trust in the Lord, are working hard to be his disciples, and who enjoy the peace of the Lord to do? What are we to do?
We could say, “I’m good. Good luck buddy.”
We could throw a Bible at them and say, “Better get after it.”
We could sling some Bible verses at them. That always works.
We could bring them to worship and they could hear Tom preach. That’s guaranteed to fix them!
What are we who have peace to do with those whom we know have made peace with the world?
We should do the very thing our Lord and Savior did. What’s that? Disturb the peace!
For all the Kangaroo Courts that Jesus went through before his execution, none could prove any charge against him. Had the self-righteous prosecutors thought about it, they could have come up with the perfect charge: Disturbing the Peace.
By his own words, he did not come to bring peace but a sword. Jesus came to disturb the peace. If you were friends with and at peace with the world, your world was about to be turned upside down, at least from your perspective.
Jesus came to give people a chance to get right-side up, but to do that he disturbed the peace that they had with the world.
So how should we disturb the peace? Should we start making signs and working on ridiculous chants? No!
We must shine as a light before people. We put our very lives on display and the light that shines from us is love, hope, and peace. There are other attributes, but for now let’s focus on peace.
Do you remember the psalm-like words of Isaiah?
You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trust in you.
Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.
When our minds are steadfast in the Lord, when our thoughts always have the Lord first, when our thinking comes from the mind of Christ and not our own understanding, then we have peace.
Then we trust fully in the Lord. We seek his kingdom and his righteousness first and we are blessed to be called his own.
We love when the world says get even.
We have peace that goes beyond human understanding. And in so doing, we disturb the peace that people have made with the world.
We are not screaming at people. We are not constantly reminding people that they are going to hell. We are living a life of love and of hope and of peace in spite of this world’s demands, and some people who have become good friends with the world and its ways see this and wonder.
Wonder what?
How are these people at peace in the middle of chaos?
How are these people generous when they make less than I do, and I am stressed over money all the time?
How are these people compassionate when others are hateful towards them?
Just what do these people have that I don’t?
That’s where the conversation begins. That’s where in conversational exchange and gentle words we reveal the love and hope and peace that we know.
That’s when we remind people that we are friends of God—the one true God who has loves us with an everlasting love—and not friends of the world. We stand firm. We don’t waffle. This is who we are, and we are not interested in being a friend of the world.
We tell our neighbors that we will be their friend but not a friend of the world. We remind them that being their friend might disturb the peace that they have with the world. Realize that we might not get invited to all of the birthday parties anymore.
When people wonder what’s up with us, that’s when we humbly explain that while we have financial challenges, we are at peace because we are master of our money. We are master in this relationship.
That’s when we take a risk and become a bit vulnerable and let these friends of the world know that we too face similar challenges, but we have learned to trust in the Lord and be a part of a mutual support network known as the body of Christ, and we have received his peace.
That’s when we tell them face-to-face—remember that speaking the truth in love is an indicator of our maturity—that our prayer for them might not be their prayer for themselves. We are praying that their peace with the world is shaken beyond belief.
We pray that the grip the god of this age has on them gives way to the truth that they come to know that not only salvation comes through Christ alone but that true peace comes through him as well.
We look them in the eye and tell them that we have come to disturb the peace they have with this world and help them find true peace in Christ Jesus. We are not condescending. We are not judgmental. We are commissioned to make disciples.
We are not commissioned to save people. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit, but we are commissioned to take the gospel to the world, make disciples, and teach others what Jesus taught us.
So many in this world have professed their faith at some point in their lives but have not taken a single step in discipleship. Instead of following Jesus wherever he leads and receiving his peace, not because of our circumstances but because of our faithfulness to him, they have made peace with the world.
Do you remember God’s instructions to his people as they prepared themselves for war while in the wilderness? One day they would enter the land promised to them. They might negotiate peace with cities outside of the Promised Land, but once they were claiming this land, they were to leave no breathing thing.
This sounds harsh, but God is a jealous God and any ungodly people still left in the land would corrupt his own people and steer them away from the laws that he gave them.
Today, we must not be a friend of the world if Jesus is our Savior and our Lord. Consider these simple dichotomies.
Friend of the world or friend of God?
Make peace with the world or receive God’s peace?
Trust in the world or trust in the Lord?
Not everyone will be happy with us speaking the truth. Many only want to hear what they want to hear and have no problem omitting or redacting the truth. Disturbing the peace is not the most direct route to acceptance in the world, but we are only temporary residents here.
Consider Gideon. God called him to tear down the altar to Baal and destroy the Asherah poles. He did and the people wanted him to pay for it. So the people came to Gideon’s father and demanded that he turn over his son so that he could be put to death for offending Baal.
Joash, Gideon’s father told the people that if Baal is indeed a god, then he can take care of this himself. From that point on, Gideon was known as Jerub-Baal, meaning let Baal contend with him.
Are we afraid today that we will offend Baal if we destroy his altars and smash the Asherah poles of our day? Exactly who are we afraid of offending with the truth?
We are not talking about pulling down statues as seems to be the fad these days. We are talking about a different sort of confrontation. We take down false arguments. We speak the truth. We lead people to see a house build on sand that needs to be firmly affixed to solid rock.
The truth is that you cannot be a friend of God and a friend of the world. You are not going to enjoy God’s peace if you have made peace with the world.
You know that, but do your neighbors? Isn’t time that we disturbed the peace? Isn’t it time that we loved our neighbors enough to disturb the peace that they have made with the world.
How?
Our example must be so godly that it disturbs the peace of those who love the world more than God.
Our language must be so purposeful that it says as for me and my house we serve the Lord even when talking about the football game.
We must be thankful and full of hope even in our worst trials, so people know that our strength comes from the Lord.
And our love takes center stage. They will know we follow Jesus by our love. We disturb the peace people have made with the world by our love.
Let’s disturb the peace.
Amen!
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